I 


THE  BUSINESS 
OF  MINING 

A  BRIEF,  NON-TECHNICAL  EXPOSITION 
OF  THE  PRINCIPLES  INVOLVED  IN  THE 
PROFITABLE  OPERATION  OF  MINES 


BY 

ARTHUR  J.  HOSKIN,  M.E., 

CONSULTING   AND   GENERAL    MINING    ENGINEEB  ;    WESTERN    EDITOR,   "  MINE3 

AND  MINERALS  "  ;   FORMERLY  PROFESSOR  OF  MINING,  COLORADO  SCHOOL 

OF  MINES  ;  MEMBER,  AMERICAN  INSTITUTE  OF  MINING  ENGINEERS  ; 

MEMBER,  COLORADO  SCIENTIFIC  SOCIETY 


WITH  16  FULL  PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  ONE  CHART 


PHILADELPHIA  &  LONDON 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 

1912 


COPYRIGHT, 


BY  J.   B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 


PUBLISHED  JULY,    IQI2 


PRINTED   BY  J.   B.   LIPPINCOTT   COMPANY 

AT  THE   WASHINGTON  SQUARE  PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA,   U.8.A. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 1 

I.    WHAT  Is  A  MINE? 4 

II.    WHAT  Is  MINING? 12 

III.  THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  MINING 22 

IV.  MINING'S  PLACE  IN  COMMERCE 28 

V.    THE  FINDING  OF  MINES 39 

VI.    MINING  CLAIMS 46 

VII.    PLACERING 60 

VIII.    OPEN  MINING 72 

IX.    CONSIDERATIONS  PRECEDING  THE  OPENING  OF 

MINES 78 

X.    MINE  OPENINGS 93 

XI.    TYPES  OF  ORE  BODIES 107 

XII.    THE  QUESTIONS  OF  DEPTH  AND  GRADES  OF 

ORE 115 

XIII.  VALUATION  OF  MINING  PROPERTY 129 

XIV.  THE  MINE  PROMOTER 134 

XV.    INCORPORATION  AND  CAPITALIZATION 140 

XVI.    MINING  INVESTMENTS 148 

XVIL    MINE  EQUIPMENTS 154 

XVIII.    MINE  MANAGEMENT 162 

XIX.    PRICES  OF  METALS 170 

XX.    MINE  ACCOUNTING 179 

XXI.     INVESTMENT  IN  MINING  STOCKS 185 

XXII.    THE  MEN  OF  THE  FUTURE  IN  MINING 202 

XXIII.    MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS 210 

CAPITALIZATION  AND  DIVIDENDS    OF   NORTH 

AMERICAN  METAL  MINES 216 

INDEX   .  221 


250790 


\ 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

UTAH  COPPER  COMPANY'S  OPEN  PIT  MINE,  BINGHAM, 

UTAH Frontispiece 

HACKETT  MINE  AND  MILL,  JOPLIN,  Mo 12 

COAL  WASHING  PLANT,  PAN  A,  ILLINOIS 16 

UNIVERSAL  MINE,  CLINTON,  IND 20 

KENNEDY  MINE,  JACKSON,  CAL 30 

A  GILPIN  COUNTY,  COL.,  SCENE 52 

DREDGES  OF  YUBA  CONSOLIDATED  GOLDFIELDS,  HAM- 

MONTON,  CAL 66 

THE  SNOWSTORM  PLACER,  F  AIRPLAY,  COL 70 

STEAM  SHOVELS  AND  CHURN  DRILLS,  COPPER  FLAT,  ELY, 

NEV 74 

MlLL   OF    THE    PlTTSBURG-SlLVER    PEAK    GOLD    MlNING 

Co.,  BLAIR,  NEV 88 

MILLS  AND  SHAFT  HOUSE  OF  DALY  WEST  MINE,  PARK 

CITY,  UTAH 100 

SHAFT  No.  3,  TAMARACK  MINING  Co.,  CALUMET,  MICH.  114 
SMELTERY  OF  THE  BALAKLALA  CONSOLIDATED  COPPER 

Co.,  CORAM,  CAL 114 

WASHOE  REDUCTION  WORKS  OF  THE  ANACONDA  COPPER 

MINING  Co.,  ANACONDA.  MONT 118 

MILL  OF  THE  ROODEPOORT-UNITED  MINES,  TRANSVAAL, 

SOUTH  AFRICA 148 

SPRAY  SHAFT  HOUSE  OF  COPPER  QUEEN  CONSOLIDATED 

MINING  Co.,  BISBEE,  ARIZ 160 

DIAGRAM  OF  METAL  MARKET  FOR  ONE-THIRD  OF  A 

CENTURY 178 

FLORENCE  MINE  AND  MILL,  GOLDFIELD,  NEV 200 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 


INTRODUCTION 

There  is  probably  no  line  of  human 
activity  that  is  not  beset  with  malicious 
and  ignorant  intruders.  The  fact  that 
any  occupation  or  business  is  really  legiti- 
mate seems  often  to  stimulate  the  opera- 
tions of  these  disreputable  persons. 

Mining  does  not  escape  the  applica- 
tion of  this  postulate.  For  ages,  the 
industry  has  afforded  most  fertile  oppor- 
tunities for  the  machinations  of  the 
unscrupulous  and  the  erring.  Somehow, 
there  weaves  throughout  the  history  of 
mining  a  sort  of  magnetism  rendering  us 
unduly  susceptible  to  the  allurements 
which  are  presented  with  every  mining 
proposition. 

It  is  not,  however,  always  intentional 
deceit  that  is  perpetrated  upon  the  un- 
wary. Often,  mining  failures  result  from 
actual  ignorance  of  the  business  upon  the 


INTRODUCTION 

part  of  those  entrusted  with  its  conduct, 
or  if  not  from  actual  lack  of  knowledge, 
then  from  erroneous  conceptions  with  the 
consequent  misapplication  of  honest  en- 
deavor. A  victim  of  such  misplaced  faith 
is  perhaps  more  leniently  inclined  than 
is  the  person  who  has  been  duped  by  a 
"shark,"  but  the  effect  upon  the  great 
industry  is  hurtful  in  either  case. 

The  purpose  of  this  short  monograph 
will  be  served  if  the  author  can  feel 
assured  that  his  readers  will  finish  its 
perusal  with  the  belief  that  mining  may 
be  followed  as  a  business  with  just  as 
much  assurance  of  success  as  attaches 
to  any  one  of  the  many  lines  of  industrial 
activity.  Many  persons  who  have  sus- 
tained losses  in  mining  ventures  deserve 
no  sympathy  whatever,  since  they  have 
not  exercised  even  the  simplest  precau- 
tions. So  long  as  men — or  women — will 
take  as  fact  the  word  of  any  untrained 
or  inexperienced  individual  concerning 
investments,  just  so  long  will  there  be 
resultant  financial  losses,  no  matter  what 
the  line  of  business.  Because  there  have 
been  elements  of  chance  observed  in  the 


INTRODUCTION 

records  of  mining,  this  business  appeals  to 
the  speculative  side  of  our  human  natures, 
with  the  result  that  untold  numbers  of 
individuals  have  had  ample  reason  to 
regret  their  ventures.  But,  as  will  be 
found  in  the  text  matter,  mining  can  be 
relied  upon  with  precisely  as  much  assur- 
ance as  can  any  other  business. 

Nothing  of  a  technical  or  engineering 
sort  has  been  attempted  herein,  the  sole 
aim  of  the  writer  being  to  establish  the 
reliability  and  the  credit  of  the  mining 
industry  as  a  whole  by  pointing  out  the 
lines  of  conduct  which  should  be  followed 
by  those  who  enter  its  precincts  as  busi- 
ness people.  When  investors  of  small 
or  large  means  will  put  their  money  into 
mining  projects  with  the  same  precautions 
that  they  would  exercise  in  placing  their 
cash  in  other  enterprises,  they  will  be 
rewarded  with  corresponding  remunera- 
tion. In  this  firm  conviction,  then,  this 
little  work  is  dedicated  to  the  intelligence 
of  American  laymen  in  mining  matters. 


WHAT  IS  A  MINE? 

Before  entering  into  a  discussion  of  the 
economic  features  of  the  mining  industry, 
it  will  be  well  to  be  sure  that  we  under- 
stand, definitely,  what  is  meant  by  min- 
ing. As  one  investigates  the  question, 
he  is  bound  to  run  across  varying  shades 
of  meaning  for  the  words  Mine  and 
Mining,  and  so  we  must  pause  long 
enough  to  define  these  words  according 
to  the  best  usages. 

A  search  through  works  on  mining 
written  at  various  periods  reveals  differ- 
ing ideas  that  have  prevailed  among 
authors.  Less  than  a  hundred  years  ago, 
it  was  said  that  a  mine  "consists  of 
subterranean  workings  from  which  valu- 
able minerals  are  extracted."  One  early 
writer  said  that  a  mine  is  one  only  when 
the  operations  are  conducted  in  the 
absence  of  daylight.  As  time  has  created 


WHAT  IS  A  MINE? 

new  fields  for  the  industry,  we  find  that 
ideas  concerning  the  meaning  of  the  word 
mine  have  necessarily  altered,  until  now 
(according  to  The  Coal  and  Metal  Miners' 
Pocketbook),  we  may  think  of  a  mine  as 
"any  excavation  made  for  the  extraction 
of  minerals."  Under  this  definition,  we 
properly  think  of  the  rather  unusual 
operations  of  marketing  coal  right  from 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  in  eastern  Kansas, 
as  mining.  There  is,  in  this  case,  no 
covering  of  earth  above  the  workmen; 
neither  are  the  operations  necessarily 
carried  on  at  night  to  avoid  the  illumina- 
tion of  the  sun. 

So,  also,  placers  are  now  correctly 
spoken  of  as  mines,  although  but  a  few 
years  ago  there  was  drawn  a  strict  line, 
eliminating  such  worked  deposits  from 
the  category  of  mines.  One  may  still 
run  across  a  few  men  who  are  sticklers 
upon  the  point  that  a  placer  is  not  a 
mine.  Throughout  the  world,  at  the 
present  time,  there  are  many  places  where 
immense  deposits  of  valuable  minerals 
are  being  excavated  from  open  pits  by 
out-of-doors  methods,  and  our  common 

5 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  MINING 

term  for  these  places  is  mines.  Thus,  in 
Minnesota,  in  that  wonderful  Lake  Supe- 
rior country,  that  is  famous  as  the  world's 
greatest  known  producer  of  iron  ore, 
tremendous  tonnages  are  handled  every 
year  by  the  modern  steam  shovel,  which 
works  in  natural  light  by  day  and  by 
electric  lamps  at  night.  In  Utah  and 
Nevada  we  find  similar  operations  con- 
ducted in  the  excavation  of  copper  ores. 
In  Australia,  the  famous  Mount  Morgan 
mine  is  using  open  air  methods  in  the 
mining  of  precious  metal  ore. 

But  what  about  quarries  from  which 
are  taken  building  stone,  salt,  kaolin  or 
clay?  Are  not  such  substances  of  the 
mineral  kingdom?  Here  we  run  across 
a  hitch  in  the  definition  quoted  above; 
for  while  we  hear  of  "salt  mines"  (not 
"salted  mines"),  our  parlance  has  not,  as 
yet,  warranted  this  term  except  for  such 
excavations  of  salt  as  are  carried  on  in 
subterranean  deposits;  and  it  is  quite  out 
of  place  to  speak  of  stone  or  clay  mines. 

Evidently  we  must  pass  through  an- 
other transition  in  our  conceptions  about 
mines,  or  we  must  permit  quarries  and 


WHAT  IS  A  MINE? 

pits  to  be  included  within  our  realm  of 
mines.  At  the  present  time,  the  pre- 
vailing practice  of  the  men  best  qualified 
in  such  matters  is  to  designate  as  mines 
those  workings  from  which  only  coal, 
metallic  ores,  or  gems  are  extracted. 
Hence,  we  should  not  speak  of  a  slate, 
sulphur,  mica,  clay  or  phosphate  mine. 

And  yet,  with  all  the  above  restric- 
tion in  our  nomenclature,  we  have  not 
reached  one  very  important  consideration, 
one  which  we  have  been  approaching  for  a 
number  of  years  and  which,  of  late,  has 
been  met  and  forcibly  applied  by  the  best 
men  in  the  profession  of  mining  engi- 
neering. 

An  excavation  that  will  produce  coal, 
metals  or  gems  is  not  necessarily  a  mine. 
The  simple  fact  that  a  man  can  get  some 
gold-bearing  dirt  from  a  hole  in  the  ground 
does  not  mean  that  he  has  a  mine.  The 
occasional  finding  of  a  diamond  on  the 
sidewalks  of  a  great  city  does  not  give 
anybody  the  impression  that  city  side- 
walks are  diamond  mines.  There  are 
many  places  in  which  small  amounts  of 
combustible  coal  can  be  scratched  from 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

its  natural  depository,  but  no  company 
appears  to  think  highly  enough  of  these 
seams  to  install  machinery  and  to  carry 
on  operations.  In  the  eastern  part  of 
Kentucky  there  are  well-defined  deposits 
of  lead-bearing  baryta,  though,  up  to 
date,  their  development  has  not  proved 
successful.  In  Brazil  there  are  known  to 
be  very  rich  areas  of  placer  ground,  and 
still  the  deposits  are  not  worked.  A  friend 
of  the  writer  discovered  some  very  good 
gold-bearing  gravels  in  Alaska,  but  he  was 
unable  to  mine. 

There  is  something  besides  the  presence 
of  valuable  minerals  and  the  ability  to 
win  them  from  their  natural  matrices  that 
is  essential  to  a  mine.  It  is  here,  in  our 
considerations  of  the  mining  industry, 
that  we  come  into  real  economic  notions 
for  the  first  time*  Yes,  according  to  the 
latest  ideas,  we  are  wrong  in  stating  that 
any  worked  or  workable  mineral  deposit 
is  a  mine,  if  it  does  not  contain  possibilities 
of  profitable  working.  This  is  now  the 
prime  thought  of  every  up-to-date  min- 
ing manager  or  engineer.  It  is  this  notion 
that  will  distinguish  a  mine  from  a  pros- 

8 


WHAT  IS  A  MINE? 

pect.  The  prospect  may  become  a  mine 
by  proving  itself  profitably  workable:  if  it 
simply  carries  values  which  cannot  be 
realized  to  advantage,  then  it  must  con- 
tinue as  a  mere  prospect.  There  are 
cases  of  properties  which  possess  rich 
deposits  and  which  are  loosely  called 
mines.  These  properties  may  be  observed 
to  be  erratic  in  their  productiveness, 
owing  to  the  very  pockety  nature  of  the 
deposits;  and  the  owners,  although  they 
do,  indeed,  strike  occasional  handsome 
bonanzas,  expend  all  the  profits  of  such 
finds  —  or  even  greater  amounts  —  in 
searching  for  other  pockets.  Is  such 
work  profitable?  Is  it  mining? 

The  trouble  with  the  cited  placers  of 
South  America  is  that  climatic,  hygienic 
and  political  conditions  have  been  antag- 
onistic to  successful  working:  the  ground 
is  rich,  but  it  cannot  be  handled  to  make 
money.  In  the  case  of  the  Alaska  gravels, 
there  was  no  available,  though  essential, 
water  supply.  The  Kentucky  galena 
cannot  be  economically  separated  from 
the  containing  heavy  spar.  Coal,  which 
is  sold  at  comparatively  low  figures  per 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  MINING 

ton,  must  be  handled  at  the  mines  in 
large  quantities  to  pay,  so  that  a  thin 
seam  or  a  scattered  deposit  is  not  suitable 
for  mining. 

Under  these  restrictions  of  our  new 
definitions,  we  run  across  many  interest- 
ing points.  For  instance,  one  may  ask 
the  question  about  the  old  abandoned 
hole  in  the  ground  which  is  occasionally 
found  by  prospectors,  "Is  it  a  mine?" 
The  answer  can  be  simply  another  query 
as  to  whether  the  hole  was  abandoned 
because  it  contained  no  value,  or  because, 
containing  value,  it  could  not  be  profit- 
ably worked.  As  we  think  of  mines  now- 
adays, we  can  conceive  several  reasons 
why,  before  the  advent  of  transportation 
lines  and  the  invention  of  modern  metal- 
lurgical processes  and  many  forms  of 
labor-saving  machinery  now  so  common 
in  and  about  mines,  many  very  rich 
deposits  may  have  been  necessarily  for- 
saken by  their  discoverers.  But  such  a 
property  would,  if  now  worked,  probably 
prove  highly  profitable.  We  thus  note 
that  there  exists  some  elasticity  in  the 
meaning  of  the  word  mine.  An  unprofit- 
10 


WHAT  IS  A  MINE? 

able  project  at  one  time  may  develop 
into  a  mine  at  a  later  period.  Many  gold 
mines  have  become  worthless  propositions 
merely  through  changes  in  the  ore  that 
have  rendered  further  work  unremun- 
erative. 


II 

WHAT  IS  MINING? 

Having  considered  the  accepted  defini- 
tion of  a  mine,  let  us  now  extend  our 
reasoning  a  little  and  inquire  just  what 
is  meant  by  mining.  At  first  thought, 
one  would  say  that  mining  is,  in  a  broad 
sense,  the  art  or  practice  of  excavating, 
at  a  profit,  the  ores  of  metals,  the  beds  of 
coal,  the  gravels  of  placers  and  the  depos- 
its containing  precious  stones.  Are  we 
justified  in  letting  this  definition  stand 
as  it  is?  If  we  do  not  make  any  change, 
we  must  exclude  all  quarries,  sand  banks, 
clay  pits,  and  the  numerous  sorts  of 
works  that  are  producing  the  non-metallic 
minerals  of  commerce.  Very  well,  since 
we  find  good  usage  will  warrant  us,  we 
will  do  so. 

Still,  there  are  other  pertinent  questions 
arising.  Does  the  practice  of  mining 
cover  the  treatment  of  the  excavated 
products?  Here  we  run  across  a  mooted 
point.  The  British  and  the  American 
12 


WHAT  IS  MINING? 

uses  of  the  word  mining  seem  to  be  a  bit 
different  in  this  regard.  Upon  the  Rand, 
South  Africa,  a  territory  dominated  by 
Englishmen,  every  mine  is  equipped  with 
its  own  mill,  and  all  notions  of  mining 
cover  the  inseparable  idea  of  local  ore 
treatment.  Here,  in  our  country,  there 
are  many,  many  mines  which  have  abso- 
lutely no  means  of  treating  their  own 
products  and  the  managers  give  no 
thought  whatever  to  metallurgical  or 
milling  lines.  There  are,  on  the  other 
hand,  many  companies  that  have  erected 
private  plants  at  their  mines  for  the 
extraction  of  metallic  contents  from  the 
ores.  Here  it  may,  or  it  may  not,  happen 
that  the  operations  of  mining  are  con- 
sidered as  distinct  from  those  of  treat- 
ment. In  some  instances,  as  at  the 
Tonopah  Mining  Company's  plants,  there 
is  separate  superintendence  of  the  milling 
and  the  mining;  but  in  the  Joplin,  Mis- 
souri, zinc  region  one  superintendent 
looks  after  the  running  of  a  mine  and 
its  omnipresent  mill. 

There  may  be  drawn  a  sharp  distinction 
between  what  is  really  mining  and  what  is 

13 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

the  subsequent  treatment  of  the  ores  for 
the  extraction  of  values.  The  latter  field 
is  denoted  Metallurgy  when  the  operations 
are  of  such  a  nature  as  to  actually  recover 
or  extract  metallic  products  or  metals. 
If  the  treatment  process  has  for  its  object 
merely  the  rejection  of  some  of  the  worth- 
less materials  in  the  original  ore,  thus 
causing  a  concentration  of  the  valuable 
minerals,  but  without  actually  obtaining 
any  metal,  then  the  term  Ore  Dressing 
is  warranted.  At  some  mines,  there  is 
maintained  a  practice  of  culling  out, 
often  by  hand,  a  certain  percentage  of 
the  obviously  worthless  ingredients  of 
the  ore  before  shipping  the  products  to 
treatment  plants.  This  is  neither  milling, 
metallurgy,  nor  ore  dressing,  but  is  more 
properly  called  Sorting.  It  is  one  of  the 
operations  connected  with  mining.  Mill- 
ing may  be  either  ore  dressing  or  metal- 
lurgy. 

In  the  operations  of  placering,  there  is  a 
simultaneous  excavation  of  a  deposit  and 
an  extraction  of  the  valuable  contents. 
In  this  case,  shall  we  call  the  process 
mining  or  metallurgy?  If  it  is  a  gold 

14 


WHAT  IS  MINING? 

placer,  one  may  see  the  recovery  of  the 
metallic  values.  Here,  the  usage  of  the 
majority  of  practical  mining  men  will 
uphold  us  in  always  speaking  of  the  work 
as  mining. 

In  its  original  significance  and  use, 
metallurgy  involved  the  use  of  fire  for 
the  concentration  and  recovery  of  metals. 
With  recent  advances  in  chemistry,  there 
have  been  numerous  discoveries  of  wet 
or  fireless  methods  for  arriving  at  equiva- 
lent results,  so  that  it  is  now  perfectly 
proper  to  allow  the  word  metallurgy  to 
cover  such  processes  as  cyanidation,  chlo- 
rination,  electrolysis,  and  the  host  of  new 
inventions  that  are  continually  appearing. 

The  writer  has  consulted  a  number  of 
authorities  on  mining  lines  to  ascertain 
just  what  sort  of  a  position  to  give  to  the 
practice  of  ore  dressing.  Prof.  Robert  H. 
Richards,  the  head  of  the  mining  depart- 
ment in  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology,  and  the  inventor  of  machines 
which  have  made  him  famous  among 
mining  men,  says,  "Ore  dressing  is  an 
essential  part  of  mining.  The  whole 
object  of  ore  dressing  is  to  remove  gangue 

15 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

before  shipment  and  so  save  in  freight 
and  treatment  charges."  Mr.  A.  G. 
Charleton,  the  eminent  English  mining 
engineer  and  author  of  numerous  books, 
in  discussing  this  question,  writes,  "Per- 
sonally, I  am  of  the  opinion  that  ore 
dressing  should  be  included  in  mining." 
One  has  but  to  look  through  the  cata- 
logues of  most  of  the  American  and 
foreign  mining  schools  to  find  that  little 
or  no  line  is  drawn  between  the  courses 
in  mining  and  metallurgy,  and  almost 
universally  the  dressing  of  a  mine's  prod- 
uct is  taken  up  as  an  inseparable  part 
of  mining.  In  a  very  few  exceptions,  the 
courses  of  study  are  so  planned  as  to 
draw  an  imaginary  line  between  mining 
and  metallurgy,  and  in  these  instances, 
ore  dressing  is  placed  with  metallurgy 
only  for  convenience  in  the  use  and 
arrangement  of  college  laboratories.  But, 
since  it  is  a  common  practice  for  mining 
companies  to  install  plants  right  at  the 
mines  for  the  purpose  of  diminishing  the 
bulk  of  ore  shipped  and  to  thus  save  in 
freight  and  custom  treatment  charges, 
mine  superintendents  and  even  the  com- 
ic 


WHAT  IS  MINING? 

mon  miners  have  become  accustomed  to 
thinking  of  such  plants  as  but  units  of 
the  "mining"  plants.  At  bituminous 
and  anthracite  mines  whose  products 
contain  objectionable  amounts  of  impur- 
ities, it  is  a  common  practice  to  subject 
the  output  to  a  Washing  to  remove  the 
deleterious  substances  before  shipment  to 
the  market. 

In  view,  then,  of  these  reasons,  it  is 
proper  to  decide  that  mining  is  a  term 
broad  enough  to  cover  the  operations  of 
extracting  coal  and  metallic  ores  from 
the  ground  and  of  preparing  them  for 
shipment  or  metallurgical  treatment. 

Coal  is  always  coal,  no  matter  in  what 
thickness  of  deposit  it  is  found.  It  may 
not  be  minable  coal  because  in  thin  seams 
or  because  so  intercalated  with  layers  of 
slate  or  "bone,"  that  the  mine's  mixture, 
or  so-called  "run  of  mine,"  is  not  salable. 
But  with  metallic  ores,  we  run  across  an 
idea  that  is  occupying  the  attention  of 
many  prominent  geologists  and  mining 
men. 

What  is  ore?  This  is  a  question  to 
which  there  have  been  many  attempted 

2  17 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

answers.  There  has  been  an  evolution 
of  ideas,  with  a  corresponding  gradation 
of  definition.  To  set  a  uniform  standard 
of  thought  upon  this  point,  officers  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  a 
few  years  ago,  proposed  the  following 
definition.  It  must  be  conceded  that 
this  definition,  while  embodying  many 
splendid  features,  is  not  altogether  exempt 
from  criticism;  but  in  the  absence  of  any- 
thing better,  we  shall  not  be  very  far  in 
error  if  we  use  it: 

Ore  is  a  natural  aggregation  of  one  or 
more  minerals  from  which  useful  metal 
may  be  profitably  extracted. 

There  is,  then,  no  such  thing  as  "pay 
ore"  or  "non-pay  ore,"  expressions  still 
quite  common  among  miners  and  pros- 
pectors of  the  uneducated  types.  Prof. 
James  F.  Kemp,  probably  America's  best- 
posted  writer  upon  the  subject,  in  an 
attempt  to  formulate  one  acceptable  and 
unchangeable  meaning  for  the  word  ore, 
says,  "In  its  technical  sense,  an  ore  is  a 
metalliferous  mineral  or  an  aggregate  of 
such  minerals,  more  or  less  mixed  with 
gangue,  and  capable  of  being  won  and 

18 


WHAT  IS  MINING? 

treated  at  a  profit.  The  test  of  yielding 
the  metal  or  metals  at  a  profit  seems  to  me, 
in  the  last  analysis,  the  only  feasible  one 
to  employ."  This  definition  eliminates 
one  of  the  weak  points  in  the  first  defini- 
tion, namely,  that  an '  ore  must  be  an 
association  of  minerals:  there  are  some 
common  ores  (as  for  example,  magnetite) 
which  are  not  associations,  but  single 
minerals. 

We  now  reach  certain  fundamental 
concepts  which  must  be  accepted  by  the 
mining  man  who  desires  to  be  recognized 
as  abreast  of  modern  ideas.  Following 
the  publication  of  Kemp's  definition  of 
ore,  there  was  much  comment — as  was 
anticipated — with  the  result  that  there 
has  been  noted  a  vacancy  in  scientific 
matters  and  it  has  been  thought  proper 
to  permit  another  definition  for  purely 
scientific  uses.  This  other  definition  of 
ore  will  cover  the  materials  or  aggregates 
of  minerals  from  which  gem  stones  and 
other  valuable,  but  not  metallic,  sub- 
stances are  recovered. 

Let  us  recapitulate.  An  ore  must  be 
an  aggregate  or  association  of  natural 

19 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

minerals,  or  a  single  mineral,  from  which 
metal  may  be  profitably  recovered.  Mines 
are  excavations  in  the  earth  from  which 
ore,  coal  or  gems  are  taken.  Mining  is 
the  art  or  practice  of  operating  mines. 

Throughout  the  subject,  we  see  the 
inseparable  idea  of  profit.  The  work  of 
carrying  on  operations  in  a  railroad  tunnel 
is  not  mining;  the  driving  of  adits  through 
barren  rocks  to  reach  ore  bodies  is  not 
mining;  the  sinking  of  shafts  through 
worthless  "wash"  or  rocks  with  a  view 
of  opening  avenues  for  the  removal  of 
ore  is  not  mining.  Mining  is  carried  on 
only  when  ore  is  being  produced.  The 
wildcat  practice  of  erecting  small,  tem- 
porary plants  and  digging  prospect  holes 
can  be  condemned  as  not  being  real 
mining. 

There  is  usually  little  question  about 
the  validity  of  a  coal  mining  proposition, 
since  "the  goods  show  for  themselves." 
Comparatively  few  cases  of  fraudulent 
ventures  in  coal  properties  are  of  record. 
The  product  of  a  coal  mine  is  ready  for 
market  just  as  soon  as  it  is  loaded  into 
railroad  cars,  the  mining  company  receiv- 
20 


WHAT  IS  MINING? 

ing  its  pay,  commonly,  upon  its  own 
recorded  weights.  There  is  no  freight 
to  pay,  no  waiting  for  assays  or  analyses, 
and  no  settlements  with  mills  or  smelteries. 
There  are  not  the  allurements  for  getting 
rich  quickly  in  coal  mining  that  are  so 
beguiling  to  the  class  of  investors  generally 
approached  by  the  promoters  of  mines  (?). 
This  must  not  be  construed  as  stating  that 
nobody  has  ever  been  deceived  in  a  coal 
mine  proposition,  for,  indeed,  there  have 
been  many  failures;  however,  they  have 
been  due,  chiefly,  to  auto-deception  as  to 
area,  thickness  or  quality  of  the  coal 
measures. 


Ill 

THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  MINING. 

Mining  is  believed  to  have  been  one 
of  man's  earliest  occupations.  In  his- 
torical writings,  many  of  which  date  back 
into  antiquity,  there  are  allusions,  as 
well  as  direct  statements,  concerning  the 
art  and  tasks  of  obtaining  valuable  metals 
from  Mother  Earth.  We  are  told  that 
the  very  ancient  Egyptians  made  common 
use  of  metals  and  that  they  possessed 
knowledge  of  certain  metallurgical  and 
metal-working  processes  (as  for  example, 
the  tempering  of  copper)  which  we,  of 
today,  cannot  claim.  Six  thousand  years 
ago  Egypt  became  a  world  power  through 
her  mining  of  copper  in  the  Sinai  Penin- 
sula. Iron  implements  found  in  the  great 
Gizeh  Pyramid  are  supposed  to  date  back 
to  4,000  B.  C.  Copper  tools  have  been 
found  in  the  ruins  of  ancient  Troy.  In 
Assyria,  a  very  good  steel  saw,  44  inches 
long,  was  taken  from  the  ruins  of  Nimrod. 
Iron  was  utilized  by  the  Chinese  some 

22 


ANTIQUITY  OF  MINING 

2,000  years  B.  C.  Near  Delhi,  India, 
there  exists  an  iron  pillar,  22  feet  long  and 
weighing  six  tons,  dating  back  to  400 
B.  C.  It  is  chiefly  interesting  in  exhibiting 
an  ancient  knowledge  of  welding  which 
is  the  envy  of  our  modern  iron  workers. 
If  we  accept  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  we 
must  believe  that  mining  was  carried  on 
in  the  time  of  Tubalcain,  spoken  of  in 
Genesis.  The  Old  Testament  contains 
numerous  verses  referring  to  the  mining 
of  metals,  the  land  of  perfect  abundance 
being  paraphrased  in  Deuteronomy  thus: 
"Where  the  stones  are  of  iron  and  out 
of  its  hills  are  digged  mines  of  brass." 
Coal  was  mined  and  used  in  Greece  in 
1330  B.  C. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  gold  was  the 
earliest  metal  to  be  worked.  There  are 
two  good  reasons  for  this  assumption: 
First,  gold  was  to  be  found  in  the  native 
state  or  as  nuggets,  thus  requiring  no 
reduction  process.  Second,  the  ores  of 
gold  are  usually  less  refractory  than  are 
the  ores  of  other  metals.  This  is  espe- 
cially true  of  the  oxidized  ores  such  as 
would  naturally  be  discovered  by  prim- 

23 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

itive  man.  These  facts,  together  with 
the  further  properties  of  gold,  viz.,  that 
its  color  is  attractive,  that  it  resists  cor- 
rosion or  tarnish,  and  that  it  is  easily 
worked  into  ornaments  or  coin  merely 
by  hammering,  make  it  highly  probable 
that  humans  early  made  use  of  this  yellow 
material. 

We  read  in  Job  28:1,  that  "gold  is 
refined;"  and  modern  investigations  tend 
to  prove  that  the  Ophir  of  Biblical  refer- 
ence is  the  southern  portion  of  Matabele- 
land  or  the  Rhodesia  of  present  fame 
among  mining  regions.  It  is  possible  and 
quite  probable  that  the  great  quantities 
of  gold  used  in  the  building  and  furnishing 
of  King  Solomon's  Temple  came  from  the 
vicinity  of  the  present  city  of  Johannes- 
burg. The  "golden  fleece"  of  literature 
has  been  explained  as  a  figure  of  speech 
for  the  skins  of  sheep  which  were  laid  in 
troughs  to  catch  gold  upon  the  principle 
of  the  riffle  in  a  modern  sluice-box. 

Copper  was  perhaps  the  second  metal 
to  be^ worked  by  man.  As  a  rule,  it,  also, 
is  easily  smelted  from  its  ores;  and,  as 
above  mentioned,  we  have  relics  that 

24 


ANTIQUITY  OF  MINING 

give  evidence  of  wonderful  skill  in  working 
this  metal  in  times  of  remote  antiquity. 

However,  other  metals  are  believed  to 
have  been  mined,  upon  commercial  scales, 
before  the  Christian  era.  Silver  and  lead 
were  handled  in  large  quantities  from  the 
mines  of  Laurium,  Greece,  in  the  sixth 
century  B.  C.,  and  the  same  mines  are 
being  worked  to  this  day,  the  principal 
values  now  being  in  the  lead  rather  than, 
as  formerly,  in  the  white  metal.  The 
Phoenicians,  about  500  B.  C.,  invaded 
Spain  for  gold,  copper,  and  mercury,  and 
Cornwall  for  tin  and  copper.  The  Alma- 
den  quicksilver  mines  of  Spain  have  been 
operated,  almost  incessantly,  since  415 
B.  C.,  and  in  the  16th  century,  A.  D., 
the  wealth  of  Europe's  greatest  family 
of  financiers,  the  Fiigers,  was  based  upon 
the  operation  of  this  remarkable  deposit. 

Del  Mar,  in  his  History  of  ike  Pre- 
cious Metals,  says,  "Desire  for  the  pre- 
cious metals,  rather  than  geographical 
researches  or  military  conquest,  is  the 
principal  motive  which  has  led  to  the 
dominion  of  the  earth  by  civilized  races. 
Gold  has  invariably  invited  commerce, 

25 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

invasion  has  followed  commerce,  and 
permanent  occupation  has  completed  the 
process.  It  is  the  history  of  the  past  as 
well  as  of  the  present.  Scipio  went  to 
Africa,  Caesar  to  Gaul,  Columbus  to 
America,  Cortez  to  Mexico,  Pizarro  to 
Peru,  Clive  to  the  conquest  and  Hastings 
to  plunder  Bengal." 

Our  own  day  has  witnessed  the  sub- 
jugation of  the  Boer.  Because  of  Mexico's 
mineral  wealth,  many  optimistic  Ameri- 
cans are  beginning  to  prophesy  the 
annexation  of  our  sister  republic.  For 
gold,  Englishmen  populated  Australia 
in  1850,  about  the  same  time  (1849)  that 
we  witnessed  the  rush  to  California  gold 
fields.  Spaniards  settled  Central  and 
South  American  countries  merely  to  gain 
the  precious  metals.  It  is  mining  which 
has  been  responsible  for  the  population 
of  the  arid,  southwestern  portion  of  our 
own  domain. 

In  this,  as  in  every  other  age  of  the 
world's  development,  we  shall  find  that 
the  mining  industry  lies  at  the  heart  of 
all  commerce.  It  is  well  for  the  student 
of  mining  economics  to  fully  appreciate 

26 


ANTIQUITY  OF  MINING 

this  fact,  for  it  will  whet  his  interest  in 
this  great  world  industry. 

"Truly,  it  has  been  a  great  seeking 
and  finding.  The  story  of  mining  may 
have  been  staled  by  commonplace,  and 
the  romance  of  it  dulled,  often  enough, 
by  greed;  yet,  in  the  main,  it  has  linked 
the  generations  of  earth  as  with  a  golden 
thread — and  if  not  golden  only,  then  there 
has  been  the  red  glint  of  copper  or  the 
white  sheen  of  silver.  Mining  districts 
may  come  and  go,  but  mining  remains." 
— (Editorial,  Engineering  and  Mining 
Journal). 


IV 
MINING'S  PLACE  IN  COMMERCE. 

It  is  said  that  upon  two  of  the  world's 
commercial  industries,  every  other  form 
of  activity  depends.  These  two  funda- 
mental industries  are  agriculture  and 
mining.  Statisticians  prove  the  above 
statement  and  the  further  fact  that  these 
two  dissimilar  branches  of  civilization's 
business  are  so  closely  related  as  to  be 
quite  inter-dependent.  Strides  are  made 
by  one  of  these  industries  only  when 
advance  is  noted  in  the  other.  While  it 
may  not  be  possible  to  explain  just  why 
this  is  so,  it  is  worth  our  attention  to 
consider  some  brief  figures  that  show 
this  condition  of  affairs. 

The  agitation  conducted  during  the 
past  few  years,  leading  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Bureau  of  Mines  in  the  De- 
partment of  the  Interior,  attracted  the 
thoughts  of  many  students  of  economics 
who  had  not  previously  or  seriously  con- 
sidered the  industry  of  mining.  The 

28 


MINING'S  PLACE  IN  COMMERCE 

delivery  of  brilliant  addresses  showed 
that  mining  had  been  unjustly  retarded. 
While  agriculture  has  for  years  been 
fostered  by  the  government  and  with 
remarkably  satisfactory  results,  the  great 
sister  industry  has  been  required,  until 
recently,  to  struggle  along  without  any 
governmental  recognition  in  the  matter 
of  support.  Yet  it  has  forged  its  way  in 
unmistakable  terms  of  progress  and  there 
was  an  insistent  demand,  among  those 
men  particularly  interested  in  the  welfare 
of  mining,  for  the  protection  and  the 
assistance  which  would  and  has  now 
come  through  the  establishment  of  a  gov- 
ernmental department.  Various  states 
have  long  recognized  the  importance  of 
the  mining  industry  by  the  establishment 
of  departments.  The  Canadian  and  Mex- 
ican governments  maintain  very  credit- 
able Departments  of  Mines.  It  was  but 
a  question  of  time  until  the  shortsighted- 
ness of  our  politicians  (not  our  statesmen) 
was  revealed,  and  the  mining  industry 
has  now  come  under  the  auspices  of  a 
federal  department. 

Taking  the  world  as  a  whole,  it  would 

29 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

be  hard  to  conceive  the  sum  total  of 
annual  mineral  productions.  The  middle 
of  the  past  century  seems  to  have  been 
a  critical  period  in  the  mining  industry 
of  the  earth.  There  was  a  great  impetus 
given  to  mining  by  the  greed  for  gold 
which  caused  the  settlement  of  our  west- 
ern states  and  the  Australian  states,  as 
already  mentioned.  But  there  gradually 
followed  the  opening  up  of  mining  in 
many  other  and  hitherto  unpopulated 
and  uncivilized  portions  of  the  globe. 
The  search  for  gold  was  successful. 

Prior  to  1850,  the  production  of  gold 
had  not  kept  pace  with  the  increase  in 
population.  Soon,  however,  it  began  to 
take  leaps,  in  almost  geometrical  ratios, 
until,  by  1900,  the  annual  production  of 
gold  throughout  the  world  was  some  2,200 
per  cent,  of  the  production  for  1800  (as 
nearly  as  may  be  ascertained).  The 
1900  gold  production  was  of  a  weight  of 
about  400  tons,  in  round  figures.  Dur- 
ing 1911,  the  world  produced  approxi- 
mately $470,000,000  (about  779  tons)  in 
new  gold  bullion.  It  is  estimated  that 
with  a  continuance  of  the  remarkable 

30 


KENNEDY  MINE,  JACKSON,  CALIFORNIA. 


MINING'S  PLACE  IN  COMMERCE 

progress,  the  next  20  years  will  duplicate 
the  amount  of  gold  now  known  in  the 
world.  This  means  that  the  amount  of 
gold  which  has  been  accumulating  from 
mining  during  the  world's  ages  will  be 
doubled  during  a  fraction  of  our  lifetime. 
This  is  significant  of  the  world's  progress, 
in  gold  mining,  at  least. 

It  seems  coincidental  that  the  rush  for 
gold  in  1849-50  should  have  been  almost 
simultaneous  with  the  remarkable  devel- 
opment of  our  other  mineral  resources. 
All  of  our  great  discoveries  of  coal,  oil, 
silver,  iron,  lead,  copper,  and  zinc  can 
be  said  to  have  followed  closely  upon  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  California.  It  is  not 
supposed  that  the  discovery  of  iron  in 
northern  Michigan  in  the  early  eighties 
had  any  connection  with  the  "Pike's- 
Peak-or-Bust"  expeditions,  nor  that  the 
opening  and  development  of  the  vast 
coal  beds  of  Pennsylvania  had  any  bear- 
ing on  the  discoveries  of  lead  and  zinc 
in  the  great  Mississippi  Valley.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  there  can  be  traced  a 
very  intimate  relation  between  the  finding 
of  gold,  silver,  copper,  and  lead  in  the 

31 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  MINING 

Rocky  Mountain  states  and  the  search  for 
gold  in  California:  the  pioneers  en  route 
to  the  coast  were  the  discoverers  and 
settlers  in  Colorado,  Wyoming,  Utah,  and 
Montana. 

Figures  are  not  available  for  arriving 
at  such  striking  or  reliable  conclusions  in 
regard  to  the  world's  production  of  metals 
other  than  gold,  but  there  is  no  logical 
reason  to  doubt  that  such  increases  have 
been  just  as  pronounced  as  in  the  case  of 
the  yellow  metal.  In  fact,  there  are  good 
grounds  for  assuming  that  the  figures  for 
silver,  lead,  iron,  and  zinc  would  show  up 
even  more  spectacularly;  while  with  coal, 
we  know  that  we  are  now  in  the  greatest 
period  of  the  world's  production. 

The  United  States  leads  the  world  in 
the  production  of  the  base  metals,  such 
as  copper,  iron,  manganese,  lead,  and  zinc, 
taken  collectively  or  separately.  Our 
country  stands  second  in  the  production 
of  the  precious  metals,  gold,  platinum, 
and  silver.  We  have  the  greatest  variety 
of  mineral  products,  as  well  as  the  great- 
est production  of  complex  ores,  or  those 
carrying  more  than  one  valuable  metal. 

32 


MINING'S  PLACE  IN  COMMERCE 

We  produce  more  copper  than  the  rest  of 
the  world  combined.  Although  we  stand 
in  second  place  when  considering  the 
production  of  gold,  we  still  possess  the 
Homestake  mine  in  the  Black  Hills, 
famous  as  being  the  gold  mine  with  the 
greatest  tonnage  in  the  world;  and  the 
Camp  Bird  mine,  in  the  San  Juan  dis- 
trict of  Colorado,  famous  the  world  over 
for  its  highest  average  value  of  gold  ore. 
This  great  mine  is  now  nearly  exhausted 
and  is  about  to  close  down  after  making 
a  wonderful  record. 

South  Africa  produces  the  greatest 
amount  of,  and  the  purest,  natural  gold 
in  the  world.  Great  Britain  has  an 
insignificant  production  of  both  gold  and 
copper,  and  still  it  is  noteworthy  that 
the  English-speaking  nations  control  the 
world's  production  of  both  these  metals. 
British  and  American  citizens  own  seven- 
eighths  of  the  world's  gold  mines.  Eng- 
land stands  second  in  the  consumption  of 
copper,  which,  of  course,  is  mainly  im- 
ported. 

Russia  controls  the  world's  output  of 
platinum,  with  very  little  competition. 

3  33 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

In  a  similar  manner,  Canada  has  the 
control  of  nickel  production.  Mexico, 
although  not  commonly  regarded  as  a 
gold  mining  country,  is  rapidly  coming 
to  the  front  and  possesses  the  Esperanza 
mine,  said  to  be  one  of  the  most  profit- 
able gold  mines  in  the  world. 

To  more  emphatically  show  the  impor- 
tance of  the  mining  industry,  especially 
in  our  own  country,  the  following  facts 
are  taken  from  1900  census  returns: 
Agriculture  produces  annually  about  $725 
per  capita;  mining,  $1,910;  and  manu- 
facturing, which  is  dependent  upon  the 
others,  $760.  The  National  Banker  has 
said:  "Statistics  show  that  the  combined 
dividends  paid  by  the  gold  and  silver 
mining  companies  of  the  United  States 
are  greater  than  the  combined  dividends 
paid  by  all  of  the  banking  institutions  of 
the  country;  and  the  combined  dividends 
paid  by  the  copper  mining  companies  of 
the  United  States  exceed  the  combined 
dividends  paid  by  all  of  our  railroads." 

There  is  one  thought  that  will  always 
comfort  any  person  who  is  engaged  in 
furthering  legitimate  mining:  Wealth 

34 


MINING'S  PLACE  IN  COMMERCE 

acquired  from  a  mine  is  not  wrested  from 
any  being  but  Mother  Earth,  and  it  is 
not,  therefore,  in  the  class  with  the  much 
discussed  "tainted  money"  that  is  said 
to  be  wrung  from  unfortunate  human 
beings. 

The  following  tables  are  presented 
to  give  the  reader  ideas  concerning  the 
productions  of  gold  and  silver  during 
recent  years.  Among  the  interesting 
points  that  may  be  noted  are  the  fol- 
lowing: 

The  gold  production  of  the  world  took 
a  sudden  drop  in  1900,  but  it  immediately 
resumed  its  upward  climb.  During  the 
decade  from  1900  to  1910,  this  produc- 
tion increased  over  81  per  cent. 

There  is  a  remarkable  similarity  notice- 
able in  the  gold  productions  of  the  United 
States  during  the  years  1910  and  1911. 

Without  the  notable  increase  in  the 
gold  output  of  the  Transvaal  in  1911, 
the  world's  total  gold  production  for  that 
year  would  have  shown  a  decrease. 

The  silver  production  of  the  United 
States  remained  practically  unchanged 
during  1911. 

35 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 


GOLD  PRODUCTION  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR  20 
YEARS 

1892 $146,292,600          1902 $298,812,493 

1893 158,437,551          1903 329,475,401 

1894 182,509,283          1904 349,088,293 

1895 198,995,741          1905 378,411,054 

1896 211,242,081          1906 405,551,022 

1897 237,833,984          1907 411,294,458 

1898 287,327,833          1908 443,434,527 

1899 311,505,947          1909 459,927,482 

1900 258,829,703          1910 469,365,110 

1901 260,877,429          1911 473,383,543 

UNITED  STATES  SILVER  PRODUCTION 

(In  Fine  Ounces) 

1910  1911 

Alabama 300  174 

Alaska 153,900  275,691 

Arizona 2,655,700  1,594,428 

California 1,791,600  2,727,336 

Colorado 8,523,000  7,530,940 

Georgia 300  225 

Idaho 7,027,000  7,507,802 

Illinois 2,100  4,648 

Michigan 262,200  507,234 

Maryland 87 

Missouri 32,200  56,228 

Montana 12,282,900  11,116,778 

Nevada 12,366,000  10,651,571 

N.  Mexico 779,000  1,142,335 

N.  Carolina 8,300  2,227 

Oklahoma 168,245 

Oregon 43,800  69,116 

Pennsylvania 700  13,262 

S.Carolina 14 

S.  Dakota 120,600  206,188 

Tennessee 69,800  126,683 

Texas 364,400  442,486 

Utah 10,445,900  1^679,633 

Virginia 200  45 

36 


MINING'S  PLACE  IN  COMMERCE 

UNITED  STATES  SILVER  PRODUCTION— Continued 

1910  1911 

Washington 204,900  142,196 

Wyoming 1,300  1,009 

Porto  Rico 51 

Philippines 1,800  3,383 

Miscellaneous 826,102 

Total 57,137,900  577796,117 

UNITED  STATES  GOLD  PRODUCTION 

(In  Value) 

1910  1911 

Alabama $32,900  $18,335 

Alaska 16,271,800  16,002,976 

Arizona 3,413,200  2,954,790 

California 20,441,400  20,310,987 

Colorado 20,526,500  19,153,860 

Georgia 24,000  30,532 

Idaho 1,035,000  1,169,261 

Illinois 5,788 

Michigan 20 

Maryland 20 

Montana 3,720,400  3,169,840 

Nevada 18,783,700  18,968,578 

New  Mexico 477,200  639,897 

N.  Carolina 64,500  76,693 

Oklahoma 30,698 

Oregon 681,400  599,235 

Pennsylvania 5,900  7,814 

S.  Carolina 37,800  13,437 

S.  Dakota 5,380,200  7,430,367 

Tennessee 2,800  14,140 

Texas 400  1,178 

Utah. 4,312,700  4,709,747 

Virginia 900  4,300 

Washington 806,000  504,537 

Wyoming 4,100  18,791 

Porto  Rico 1,000  2,191 

Philippines 154,400  130,501 

Miscellaneous 265,013 

Total $96,269,100  $96,233,528 

37 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 


GOLD  PRODUCTION  OF  THE  WORLD 

1910  1911 

Transvaal $155,730,260  $170,487,900 

United  States  including  Alaska.  96,269,100  96,233,528 

Australia 65,634,340  61,072,409 

Russia 43,168,389  40,600,000 

Mexico 24,073,100  19,500,000 

Rhodesia 12,607,791  13,045,100 

India 12,089,400  10,505,506 

Canada 10,224,910  10,646,000 

China 10,102,300  10,000,000 

Japan,  East  Indies,  etc 10,522,437  10,600,000 

West  Africa 3,674,087  5,268,100 

Madagascar 2,149,721  1,900,000 

France 1,114,700  1,275,000 

Central  and  South  America 14,886,234  15,000,000 

Other  countries 7,118,841  7,250,000 

Total $469,365,610  $473,383,543 


THE  FINDING  OF  MINES. 

Mines  are  discovered  in  many  ways. 
One  hears  much  about  prospecting,  and 
since  this  is  a  practice  which  is  rapidly 
changing  from  a  mystical  to  a  scientific 
basis,  a  few  considerations  will  here  be 
in  order. 

Persons  who  have  lived  in  mining 
communities  are  familiar  with  two  types 
of  prospector,  the  roving  and  the  settled. 
Somehow,  when  we  think  of  the  former, 
there  comes  to  mind  a  bearded,  roughly 
clad  man,  usually  accompanied  by  a 
"jack"  and  both  packing  the  outfit  con- 
sisting of  a  few  tools,  a  pan,  some  blank- 
ets, a  gun,  and  a  supply  of  "grub."  If 
we  have  in  mind  the  other  type  of  pros- 
pector, we  imagine  him  as  living  an 
isolated  life  in  a  log  cabin  up  in  the  hills, 
spending  his  daytime  in  putting  in  a  few, 
short  drill-holes  and  blasting  down  a  ton 
or  two  of  usually  worthless  rock  in  a 

39 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

"tunnel"  or  shallow  shaft,  confident  that 
each  succeeding  shot  will  disclose  a 
treasure. 

Both  of  these  types  represent  the 
utmost  in  optimism.  These  men  endure 
many  hardships  and  privations,  they  can 
have  little  converse  with  other  humans, 
often  they  can  see  no  provisions  for  the 
next  day;  in  fact,  they  receive  few  of  the 
benefits  of  modern  civilization — if  we 
except  the  food-preserving  features.  Still, 
a  typical,  old-style  prospector  keeps  on 
with  absolute  faith  that  fortune  will 
smile  tomorrow.  We  must  reach  the 
conclusion  that  these  uneducated  men 
are  led  on  by  subtle  beliefs  which,  to  a 
technically-trained  man,  seem  like  the 
rankest  folly.  They  are  diviners,  dream- 
ers. They  are  disappearing  now  and,  a 
generation  hence,  there  will  be  but  memo- 
ries of  them.  They  are  giving  way. to 
successors  of  a  different  type. 

The  newer  kind  of  prospector  is  well 
educated,  and,  perchance,  he  is  rather 
youthful.  His  chances  of  success  are 
many  times  those  of  the  man  he  sup- 
plants. Why?  Because  he  is  taking 

40 


THE  FINDING  OF  MINES 

advantage  of  the  work  that  has  been  done 
by  all  former  prospectors.  He  is  guided 
by  theories  deduced  from  observations 
through  ages,  and  he  has  the  advice  of 
the  best  contemporary  men  of  experience 
in  matters  of  geology  as  applied  to  min- 
ing. In  other  words,  he  is  a  scientific 
prospector. 

The  prospector  of  today  has  a  general 
understanding  of  mineralogy  and  geology ; 
he  must  have  knowledge  of  mining  meth- 
ods, so  that  he  may  know  whether  a 
deposit,  once  found,  can  be  exploited  at 
a  profit;  he  must  be  ready  to  account  for 
all  discovered  mineral  bodies,  and  he 
must  be  capable  of  applying  theories  to 
actualities. 

There  are  so  many  metals  and  minerals 
sought  for  the  markets  of  the  world  today 
that  we  see  there  are  many  fields  of  study 
and  practice  open  to  prospectors.  It  is 
not  the  purpose  here  to  explain  the 
details  of  scientific  prospecting,  for  the 
study  of  this  one  subject  would,  in  itself, 
fill  a  volume.  The  object  of  the  above 
remarks  is  to  draw  to  the  attention  of  the 
economist  the  propriety  (amounting  al- 

41 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

most  to  a  necessity)  of  giving  heed  to  the 
findings  of  the  educated,  trained  searcher 
for  mineral  bodies,  in  preference  to  those 
of  the  illiterate  man  who  has  furnished 
themes  for  artists,  narrators,  and  drama- 
tists, because  of  his  quaint  characteristics. 

Some  writers  have  classified  mineral 
discoveries  into  Search,  Chance  and  Ad- 
ventitious. 

Search  discoveries,  being  the  rewards 
of  earnest  seeking,  it  is  not  surprising  that, 
under  the  past  guide  of  notions  and 
mysticism,  the  percentage  of  such  dis- 
coveries has  been  small.  Under  the  new 
order  of  things,  with  science  as  a  guide, 
the  percentage  is  growing  and,  in  the 
future,  this  kind  of  discovery  will  un- 
doubtedly strongly  outnumber  the  others. 

Chance  discoveries  are  those  that  are 
made  purely  without  premeditation. 
They  have  been  a  dominant  factor  in 
the  mineral  development  of  the  past. 
The  discovery  of  gold  in  California  came 
about  through  the  noticing  of  shiny,  yel- 
low flakes  of  metal  in  a  ditch  leading  to  a 
saw-mill.  The  great  iron  mines  of  the 
Mesabi  Range  were  found  by  the  ore 

42 


THE  FINDING  OF  MINES 

clinging  to  the  roots  of  an  overturned 
tree.  The  Wallaroo  copper  mine,  the 
greatest  in  Australia,  was  discovered  by 
the  green  minerals  brought  to  the  surface 
in  the  excavations  of  a  wombat.  The 
famous  Sudbury  nickel-silver  ore  bodies 
were  disclosed  when  making  a  railroad 
cut  on  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railroad. 
The  Reddington  quicksilver  mine,  in  Cal- 
ifornia, was  similarly  opened  in  a  cut  for 
a  wagon  road.  The  mining  of  silver  at 
Catorce,  Mexico,  followed  the  discovery 
of  shining  silver  nuggets  in  the  camp-fire 
of  a  native,  who  had  camped  right  upon 
a  rich  outcrop.  The  Kimberly  diamond 
mines  are  said  to  have  been  disclosed  by 
the  burrowings  of  an  ichneumon,  which 
fetched  a  brilliant  stone  to  the  sunlight. 
Adventitious  finds  are  such  as  occa- 
sionally occur  when,  while  really  search- 
ing for,  or  actually  mining,  one  metal, 
discovery  is  made  of  a  different  metal,  or 
possibly  the  same  metal  is  found  in  an 
entirely  different  kind  of  ore.  The  Corn- 
stock  lode  of  Nevada  was  originally  a 
search  gold  discovery,  the  gold  having 
been  sought  and  found  by  two  prospec- 

43 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

tors  with  ordinary  gold  pans.  In  their 
working  to  recover  gold,  a  black  mineral 
and  a  yellow  sand  were  discarded  from 
the  pans  and  rockers.  Curiosity  of  one 
man  resulted  in  the  identification  of  these 
two  minerals  as  ores  of  silver  which  hence- 
forth were  held  as  valuable  as  the  native 
gold.  The  Anaconda  mine,  at  Butte, 
Montana,  was  located,  and  for  some  time 
worked  as  a  silver  proposition;  but  the 
values  gradually  changed  with  depth 
from  silver  to  copper,  until  now  silver  is 
only  a  valuable  by-product.  The  rich 
lead-silver  ores  of  Leadville  were  dis- 
covered as  adventitious  to  the  operation 
of  the  rich  gold  placers  in  California 
Gulch.  A  heavy,  troublesome  rock  which 
accumulated  in  the  sluices,  much  to 
the  disgust  of  the  miners,  turned  out 
to  be  cerussite,  a  fine  ore  of  lead.  This 
same  district  now  produces  in  commercial 
amounts  gold,  silver,  lead,  iron,  zinc, 
copper,  and  manganese.  The  Treadwell 
mine  on  Douglas  Island,  Alaska,  was 
first  worked  as  a  placer  and  the  values 
were  found  to  extend  downward  into  the 
underlying  rock  in  a  place  which  proved 

44 


THE  FINDING  OF  MINES 

to  be  an  immense  deposit  of  eruptive, 
gold-bearing  ore. 

As  the  old-fashioned,  venturesome  kind 
of  prospecting  has  but  recently  been 
crowded  off  the  scene  by  the  better, 
scientific  kind,  let  us  not  overlook  the 
great  discoveries  that  were  made  in  the 
past  before  we  had  applied  "organized 
common  sense"  to  such  a  field  of  activity. 
Those  original  prospectors  were  searchers, 
hunters.  They  had  no  guides,  but  they 
did  accomplish  a  great  deal,  and  their 
discoveries  were  rewards  for  diligence 
and  hard  labor  which  were,  to  a  great 
extent,  often  misdirected. 


VI 
MINING  CLAIMS. 

The  process  of  acquiring  title  to  min- 
ing property  may  be  viewed  from  a 
number  of  points.  Such  property  is  real 
estate  and,  as  such,  it  may  be  bought 
and  sold  or  otherwise  transferred  exactly 
the  same  as  farms  or  city  lots. 

The  United  States  has  constructed  an 
elaborate  system  for  the  disposal  of  its 
public  lands  to  individuals,  under  various 
classifications,  such  as  homestead,  desert 
land,  timber  and  stone,  timber  culture, 
coal,  placer,  and  lode  claims.  Different 
rules  apply  to  the  filing  upon,  improve- 
ment and  patenting  (acquiring  deed  from 
the  Government)  of  these  various  kinds 
of  claims.  The  character  of  the  lands  in 
the  public  domain  is  decided  by  the  sur- 
veyors who  execute  contracts  from  the 
General  Land  Office  for  subdividing  or 
staking  the  country  off  into  townships 
and  sections,  according  to  our  American 
system.  In  the  return  of  each  surveyor's 

46 


MINING  CLAIMS 

notes,  he  recommends  the  sale  of  the 
land  according  to  his  judgment  as  to  its 
highest  value.  There  has  naturally  been 
a  good  deal  of  erroneous  conception  upon 
these  points,  with  the  result  that,  often, 
land  has  been  later  shown  to  be  entirely 
different  in  its  character  from  the  classi- 
fication given  to  it  by  the  contracting 
surveyor;  for  the  qualifications  of  such 
a  person  are  not  always  of  a  high  grade, 
when  it  comes  to  geological  questions. 
And  yet,  on  the  whole,  the  scheme  has 
worked  out  well  and  much  fraud  against 
the  Government  has  been  prevented  by 
the  rigid  practice. 

The  Government  prices  for  some  of  the 
various  classes  of  land  have  been  as  fol- 
lows: agricultural,  $1.25  per  acre;  coal, 
$10  per  acre  when  the  land  was  not  closer 
to  a  railroad  than  15  miles,  and  $20  per 
acre  when  it  lay  within  this  limit;  placer, 
$2.50  per  acre;  lode,  $5  per  acre.  These 
have  been  the  prices  demanded  for  the 
land  only;  the  payment  of  these  amounts, 
in  many  cases,  has  constituted  a  small 
fraction  of  the  expense  of  securing  the  orig- 
inal deeds  from  the  Federal  Government. 

47 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

Coal  lands  may  be  located  very  much 
the  same  as  a  homestead,  with  the  excep- 
tion that  residence  upon  the  ground  is  not 
required,  nor  are  improvements  essential. 
In  cases  of  dispute  as  to  priority  of  loca- 
tion, the  land  office  will  recognize  those 
claimants  who  have  expended  the  greater 
amounts  in  improvements.  One  citizen 
may  locate  but  one  claim  of  160  acres. 

Since  April  10,  1909,  the  Government 
has  been  disposing  of  its  public  coal  lands 
under  a  classification  that  takes  note  of 
many  details.  The  kind,  grade,  thickness, 
and  purity  of  coal;  the  number  of  work- 
able seams;  the  depth;  the  features  of 
local  supply;  transportation  facilities;  and 
the  average  prices  at  which  similar  private 
tracts  are  held,  are  among  the  items 
recognized  in  the  classification.  Probably 
no  two  tracts  will  be  sold  at  the  same 
rate.  In  general,  the  new  prices  are  higher 
than  the  flat  prices  that  formerly  pre- 
vailed and  some  pieces  of  land  are  now 
estimated  as  high  as  $175  per  acre.  In 
every  case  of  application  to  purchase 
coal  land,  hereafter,  the  area  in  question 
will  undergo  inspection  by  Government 

48 


MINING  CLAIMS 

experts  and  a  price  will  then  be  assessed. 
This  law  is  being  severely  opposed  as 
being  unreasonably  severe,  and  its  amend- 
ment may  be  looked  for. 

Placer  lands  were  formerly  permitted 
to  be  taken  up  in  any  shape,  the  boundary 
stakes  being  placed  upon  the  ground  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  include  only  the 
desirable  area,  which  is  usually  of  an 
alluvial  nature  along  some  valley  or  gulch. 
This  practice  has  been  forbidden,  how- 
ever, and  a  locator  is  now  obliged  to  take 
up  his  land  in  quadrilateral  tracts  con- 
forming to  the  subdivisions  of  the  so- 
called  Public  Survey.  By  this  rule,  it  is 
permissible  to  file  upon  land  which  is  laid 
off  into  lots  of  not  less  than  -fa  of  a 
quarter  section — or  ten  acres — and  a 
claim  may  be  composed  of  such  lots  as 
lie  contiguously  and  which  may  thus  be 
considered  as  one  complete  workable  area. 
The  claims  are  often  of  zigzag  or  L  shapes, 
but  the  locator  is  enabled,  at  the  extra 
expense  of  subdivision  surveying,  to  avoid 
filing  upon,  and  paying  for,  much  ground 
that  he  feels  is  not  desirable  in  a  placer 
claim.  The  Government  does  not  survey 

4  49 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

public  domain  into  smaller  tracts  than 
quarter  sections  of  160  acres  each,  so 
that  in  the  taking  up  of  placers  it  often 
involves  a  great  deal  of  expense  to  carry 
the  subdivisions  upon  the  ground  into 
sufficient  detail  to  ascertain  the  location 
of  boundary  corners. 

One  person  is  entitled  to  as  many 
placer  claims  as  he  desires.  Each  claim 
of  a  single  individual  may  contain  not 
to  exceed  20  acres  and,  as  said,  it  must 
be  of  one  continuous  area.  Associations 
of  citizens  to  the  number  of  eight  may 
unite  in  the  location  of  160  acres,  which 
will  then  be  held  in  equal  and  common 
interest  by  the  several  locators.  The 
restraint  placed  upon  greed  in  the  matter 
of  locations,  either  placer  or  lode,  lies  in 
certain  expenses  entailed  in  work  or 
improvements  upon  the  land  before  pat- 
ent may  be  issued  and  the  legal  require- 
ment of  the  performance  of  labor  upon 
each  claim  amounting  to  $100  per  annum. 
Also,  it  is  required  that  bona  fide  values 
be  disclosed  upon  the  ground.  For  each 
20  acres  located  under  the  placer  laws  of 
the  United  States,  not  less  than  $500 

50 


MINING  CLAIMS 

worth  of  improvements  must  be  made 
before  the  issuance  of  a  patent. 

The  legal  (not  the  technical)  definition 
of  lode  land  covers  all  grounds  containing 
deposits  of  ore  in  its  natural  and  original 
place  of  deposit.  Under  the  laws,  there- 
fore, a  citizen  may  file  upon  a  tract  of 
land  to  include  a  vein,  lode,  mass,  chim- 
ney or  any  other  form  of  ore  body.  The 
laws  were  framed  at  a  time  when  miners 
were  familiar  only  with  the  steep,  tabular 
forms,  synonymously  termed  veins  or 
lodes  in  their  nomenclature,  and  there 
were  introduced  features  which  time  and 
progress  in  geological  investigations  have 
proved  to  be  entirely  unsuited  to  the 
needs  of  locators  in  many  districts. 

Our  statutes  provide  that  a  lode  claim 
may  not  exceed  an  area  of  20,662  acres, 
this  being  the  area  of  a  parallelogram 
1,500  feet  long  by  600  feet  wide.  The 
intention  is  to  permit  a  discoverer  to  lay 
off  a  "lode  line"  along  the  outcrop  of 
his  vein  for  a  distance  of  1,500  feet  and, 
at  each  end,  to  measure  off,  at  right 
angles,  a  distance  of  300  feet  each  way, 
merely  as  assurance  that  he  covers  the 

61 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

entire  thickness  of  his  lode.  Since  the 
surface  contours  of  rugged  country  will 
crook  the  outcrop  of  a  dipping  plane  (such 
as  we  may  imagine  a  vein  to  be)  the  laws 
were  constructed  to  permit  a  claim  being 
laid  off  with  angles  or  bends  in  the  bounda- 
ries so  that  the  outcrop  might  be  kept 
closely  along  the  middle  of  the  claim. 

The  above  dimensions  and  area  are 
the  maximum  permissible  under  the  Fed- 
eral laws.  The  Government  does  not 
say  that  claims  may  not  be  less  in  extent, 
anywhere,  nor  does  it  prevent  states, 
counties  or  even  mining  districts  from 
making  further  limitations.  In  most  of 
the  western  mining  states  and  territories 
that  have  applied  the  mining  law,  the 
full  maximum  is  allowed;  but  in  Colo- 
rado no  claim  is  legal  if  it  exceeds  a 
width  of  300  feet,  while  in  four  counties 
of  the  same  state  claims  have  been 
restricted  in  width  to  150  feet.  By  legis- 
lative enactment,  since  September  1, 
1911,  claims  in  all  counties  of  Colorado 
are  permitted  to  be  taken  up  300  feet 
in  width.  The  citizens  or  miners  of  any 
new  district,  in  any  state  or  territory, 


MINING  CLAIMS 

may  elect  to  limit  claims  to  any  size  less 
than  the  maximum  granted  by  the  stat- 
utes and  such  a  decision  will  be  recognized 
by  courts  as  binding  upon  all  comers. 
This  is  an  example  of  the  rights  of  custom 
hi  establishing  common  law.  In  all 
shapes  and  widths  of  lode  claims,  there  is 
now  the  rigid  restriction  that  the  two 
end-lines  must  be  laid  off  exactly  parallel. 
The  laws  of  our  country  contemplate 
the  right  of  any  locator  of  a  vein  to  follow 
such  vein  down  upon  its  dip,  even  if  it 
extends  beyond  vertical  planes  passed 
through  the  side  boundaries.  The  ver- 
tical planes  through  the  end-lines,  how- 
ever, may  not  lawfully  be  penetrated  in 
the  extraction  of  ore  bodies.  The  appli- 
cation of  this  doctrine  of  "extra-lateral 
rights"  has  led  to  innumerable  contro- 
versies that  have  crippled  many  worthy 
mining  enterprises.  The  inevitable  habit 
of  different  veins  to  intersect,  branch, 
unite,  and  in  many  other  ways  to  cause 
complications,  has  served  no  purpose  but 
to  delay  operations,  cause  legal  warfare 
and  embitter  neighbors.  So  unjust  have 
been  courts'  decisions  in  interpreting 

53 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

the  lax  laws  that  various  mining  districts 
have  taken  unto  themselves  the  preroga- 
tive of  deciding  for  themselves  what  is 
justice  to  all  concerned;  and  we  therefore 
find  that  many  "camps"  have  unwritten 
laws  under  which  claimants  are  restrained 
in  their  underground  operations,  to  the 
ground  contained  between  vertical  planes 
through  all  boundaries,  whether  end  or  side. 
This  is  obviously  the  only  fair  plan,  and  it 
is  hoped  that,  whenever  the  legislators  at 
Washington  get  time  to  give  to  the  matter 
the  attention  it  deserves,  our  nation  will 
be  favored  with  a  revision  of  this  and  a 
number  of  other  objectionable  mining  laws 
which  have  retarded  the  industry.  Ours 
is  the  only  country  having  laws  permitting 
extra-lateral  rights  and,  upon  this  score, 
we  are  criticized  by  all  foreigners. 

The  Canadian  government  appears  to 
leave  the  framing  of  mining  laws  to  the 
several  provincial  governments.  Ontario 
and  Quebec  have  very  good  and  simple 
laws  relative  to  mining  claims.  In  some 
respects  the  laws  of  the  two  provinces 
are  similar.  For  example,  in  each  prov- 
ince a  claim  must  be  laid  out  as  a  subdi- 

54 


MINING  CLAIMS 

vision  of  the  usual  public  survey  and  is 
normally  40  acres  in  extent.  Again,  no 
prospecting  or  locating  may  be  done  ex- 
cept by  persons  holding  so-called  miners' 
licenses  or  miners'  certificates,  which 
cost  $5  to  $10  per  year.  No  extra-lateral 
rights  are  recognized. 

In  Ontario,  a  patent  may  be  applied 
for  any  time  within  3j/^  years  of  the  date 
of  certificate  of  record,  and  the  land  is 
purchased  outright  by  the  payment  of 
$3  per  acre.  The  patent  thus  obtained 
conveys  no  rights  to  timber  or  water  on 
the  property.  In  Quebec,  patents  are 
never  issued  and  mining  claims  are  held 
by  a  sort  of  lease,  as  it  were.  A  license 
to  hold  a  mining  claim  costs  a  flat  fee 
of  $10,  plus  an  extra  fee  of  one  dollar 
per  acre.  At  times,  arrangements  are 
made  for  holding  and  working  mining 
property  upon  a  3  per  cent  royalty  basis. 

The  Mexican  laws  permit  the  location 
of  any  number  of  claims  by  individuals. 
A  locator  is  required  to  employ  an  expert 
(perito)  to  make  a  careful  survey  of  his 
claims  (pertinencias) ,  which  are  taken  up 
in  rectangular  form.  Measurements  are 

55 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

according  to  the  metric  system,  and  the 
unit  of  area  is  the  hectara,  which  is  the 
area  of  a  square  with  100-meter  (328-feet) 
sides,  and  is  equivalent  to  £.471  acres.  The 
government's  sale  price  for  mineral  ground 
is  5  pesos  (about  $2.50)  per  hectare,  or 
approximately  one  dollar,  United  States 
money,  per  acre.  The  unit  size  of  a  claim 
is  a  hectare,  and  it  thus  comes  about  that 
the  words  pertinencia  and  hectara  are  used 
somewhat  synonymously. 

Under  United  States  laws,  the  owner 
of  agricultural  land,  if  he  has  not  com- 
mitted perjury  in  perfecting  his  title, 
will  hold  all  minerals  which  may  be  dis- 
closed subsequently  to  the  granting  of 
his  deed.  The  proof  of  false  representa- 
tions will  rescind  any  such  patent  and 
the  ground  will  revert  to  the  Government 
and  be  again  open  to  location. 

In  the  surveying  and  laying  off  of 
mineral  claims  for  patent  purposes,  the 
United  States  laws  require  the  claimant 
to  put  the  work  into  the  hands  of  a 
mineral  surveyor.  Such  a  surveyor  may 
usually  be  engaged  in  any  mining  district 
and  he  will  hold  a  commission  from  the 

66 


MINING  CLAIMS 

Department  of  the  Interior  authorizing 
him  to  do  this  sort  of  work.  He  will  have 
passed  certain  examinations  as  to  his 
capabilities  and  he  will  have  filed  bonds 
in  the  sum  of  $5,000  for  the  faithful 
performance  of  his  duties  to  both  the 
Government  and  his  client.  He  receives 
no  compensation  from  the  Government, 
and  each  claimant  may  make  such  terms 
with  him  as  are  equitable.  He  must  hold 
no  interest,  directly  or  otherwise,  in  the 
property  he  surveys,  nor  is  he  permitted 
to  file  upon  any  mineral  land.  If  he 
undertakes  a  case  for  a  client  his  duties 
require  him  to  survey  the  boundaries  of 
every  other  mineral  claim  which  may  be 
contiguous  to,  or  conflicting  with,  the 
one  in  question,  and  his  maps  must 
accurately  show  all  such  claims.  His 
notes  will  contain  sufficient  data  to  ac- 
curately convey  the  exact  location,  the 
chief  topographical  features,  the  con- 
flicts with  all  other  locations,  the  position, 
and  description  of  all  mining  improve- 
ments, and  many  other  details  which 
will  be  required  in  the  final  purchase  of 
the  land  from  the  Government.  The 

57 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

surveyor's  fee  will  vary  from  $50  to 
possibly  $200  for  a  single  claim,  much 
depending  upon  the  nature  of  the  survey, 
whether  simple  or  difficult,  and  upon  local 
financial  conditions  and  competition. 

After  the  filing  of  the  mineral  survey- 
or's notes  and  plats  with  the  Surveyor- 
General,  critical  examination  of  the  docu- 
ments is  made,  and  if  they  are  found  to 
conform  with  all  requirements,  the  case 
is  "approved"  and  it  may  then  pass  to 
the  local  land  office  of  the  district.  Next 
begins  a  publication  period  of  sixty  days, 
during  which  opportunity  is  offered  the 
public  to  enter  objections  to  the  issuance 
of  a  patent,  either  for  reasons  of  conflict 
or  because  of  fraud.  If  no  such  adverse 
proceedings  are  instituted,  the  patent 
will  follow,  in  due  time. 

The  ultimate  expense  of  securing  a 
patent  to  a  claim  of,  say,  the  maximum 
area  will  not  be  less  than  $225,  and  it 
may  run  as  high  as  $300  if  in  a  region 
difficult  to  survey  or  if  there  are  a  good 
many  conflicting  surveys. 

A  mineral  surveyor  is  prohibited  from 
acting  as  attorney  for  the  claimant  in 

58 


MINING  CLAIMS 

presenting  his  claims  before  the  Land 
Office,  so  an  attorney's  fee  must  be  added 
to  the  above  rough  estimates.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  although  the  surveyor 
does  not  nominally  appear  as  the  attorney, 
in  many  a  case  it  is  he  who  makes  out  all 
of  the  documents  to  be  then  signed  by  an 
attorney  in  fact.  The  laws  are  faulty  in 
this  respect.  The  lawyer  recognizes  this 
fact  and  he  asks  the  surveyor  to  make 
out  the  many  legal  forms;  for  who  is  so 
fully  cognizant  of  the  property  and  the 
desires  of  the  claimant  as  the  surveyor 
who  has  become  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  premises,  its  workings,  its  desir- 
able features  and  everything  concerned 
with  the  adjustment  of  conflicts?  It  is 
to  be  expected  that  he  could  best  protect 
the  claimant's  interests,  and  it  is  wrong 
to  retire  him  at  this  very  critical  time 
prescribed  by  a  foolish  law.  The  fee  of 
an  additional  man  in  the  case  is  an  unjust 
burden  upon  the  client.  Land  Office 
officials  have  recognized  this  fact.  They 
know  that  the  best  documents  reaching 
their  offices  are  those  prepared  by  min- 
eral surveyors. 


VII 
PLACERING. 

Different  writers  hold  the  following 
slightly  different  definitions  of  a  placer: 
One  says,  "a  placer  is  a  surface  accumu- 
lation of  minerals  in  the  wash  of  streams 
and  seas,"  while  another  writes  that  a 
placer  is  "a  place  where  surface  deposi- 
tions are  washed  for  valuable  minerals, 
such  as  gold,  tin,  tungsten,  gems,  etc." 
One  definition  conveys  no  notion  of  the 
operations  of  mining,  but  is  merely  geo- 
logical, while  the  other  involves  the 
thought  of  the  recovery  of  values. 

No  matter  how  or  where  found,  placers 
were  all  originally  of  surface  deposition. 
They  are  now  found  in  gulches,  canons, 
valleys,  ocean  and  lake  beaches,  glacial 
drifts,  and  sometimes  beneath  eruptive 
flows.  Such  placers  as  occupy  the  courses 
of  streams  are  spoken  of  as  gulch,  valley, 
bar,  and  bench  placers.  The  meanings 
of  the  first  three  names  are  obvious.  By 
a  bench  placer  is  understood  a  deposit 

60 


PLACERING 

that  was  originally  the  bed  of  a  stream, 
but  which,  in  the  course  of  time,  has 
been  cut  down,  or  through,  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  leave  a  shelf  or  bench  of 
the  "wash"  hanging  up  some  distance 
above  the  present  base  of  the  gulch  or 
valley. 

When  such  deposits  that  have  been 
covered  by  lava  flows  are  disclosed  and 
worked,  they  go  by  the  name  of  "buried 
placers."  They  are,  by  no  means,  un- 
common, and  typical  "drift  mines"  of 
this  sort  are  operated  in  California  and 
New  Zealand.  They  present  the  novelty 
of  working  alluvial  deposits  under  cover 
of  solid  rocks,  and  they  thus  conform  to 
one  of  the  early  definitions  of  a  mine,  as 
previously  given.  Since  the  workings  of 
such  subterranean  placers  are  generally 
confined  to  an  approximately  horizontal 
zone,  the  mine  passages,  to  a  certain 
degree,  resemble  those  of  a  coal  mine. 

Placer  deposits,  being  of  a  secondary 
nature,  the  materials  are  not  in  the  place 
nor  form  of  the  original  components. 
The  gravels  and  sands,  together  with  the 
valuable  contents,  probably  originally  ex- 

61 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

isted  in  some  solid  forms  such  as  rocks 
or  massive  minerals.  The  primary  struc- 
tures, in  the  course  of  ages  and  by 
atmospheric  agencies,  have  been  disinte- 
grated and  carried  by  gravity  and  flow- 
ing water  to  lower  levels.  The  finer  the 
decomposed  material,  the  further  it  has 
been  transported. 

If  the  original  rocks  carried  gold,  the 
flakes  of  the  metal,  being  of  high  specific 
gravity,  would  tend  to  settle  to  the 
bottom  of  the  channels  and  to  be  carried 
shorter  distances  than  would  the  lighter, 
non-metallic  particles.  The  finer  the 
gold,  the  more  evenly  will  it  be  distributed 
in  the  bed  of  gravel.  Likewise,  placers 
near  the  heads  of  gulches,  as  a  rule,  carry 
coarser  gold  than  those  farther  down 
stream. 

The  valuable  materials  found  in  placers 
must,  of  necessity,  be  those  that  possess 
the  property  of  resisting  corrosion  and 
disintegration.  The  minerals  and  metals 
are,  therefore,  of  a  very  permanent 
character. 

Every  find  of  "values"  in  a  placer  is 
unquestioned  evidence  that  somewhere, 


PLACERING 

above  the  present  deposit,  there  originally 
existed  primary  depositions  containing 
the  valuable  metals  or  minerals.  The 
trail  can  frequently  be  traced  back  to 
them.  These  so-called  "mother  lodes" 
are  not  necessarily  rich.  In  the  case  of 
gold,  for  instance,  these  original  deposits 
of  ore  may  not  carry  the  metal  in  coarse 
enough  particles  to  be  visible  and  yet 
the  placers  may  contain  nuggets.  There 
are  numerous  theories  proposed  to  ac- 
count for  this  observed  phenomenon, 
but  we  will  not  discuss  them  here.  The 
fact  remains  that  nuggets  have  been 
actually  produced  artificially  in  flowing 
water  under  conditions  similar  to  Nature's. 
The  methods  of  prospecting  and  work- 
ing placer  ground  have  undergone  many 
improvements,  but  there  are  still  many 
men  practicing  the  primitive  ways  of  a 
generation  ago.  The  use  of  devices  of 
simple  construction  and  for  operation  by 
muscular  effort  is  still  familiar  in  many 
regions;  and  there  are  good  miners  who 
cling  to  such  practice  in  the  belief  that 
it  is  the  cheapest  and  truest  way  in  which 
to  ascertain  the  values  of  wash  deposits. 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

Also,  there  are  many  placers  of  limited 
areas  and  irregular  shapes  that  cannot 
be  well  handled  in  any  other  manner. 

With  a  "pan,"  a  man  can  wash,  in 
ten  hours,  not  over  one  cubic  yard  of 
dirt;  and  to  accomplish  this  amount  of 
washing  the  ground  must  be  very  loose 
and  favorable.  An  ordinary  ten-hour 
day's  work  is  about  100  pans.  This  is 
equivalent  to  about  one-half  of  a  cubic 
yard,  which  is  the  unit  of  volume  in  all 
placering  operations.  One  may  thus 
readily  arrive  at  the  cost  of  carrying  on 
operations  in  this  way.  A  cubic  yard  of 
ordinary  placer  dirt  is  the  equivalent  of 
less  than  two  tons.  A  batea  is  the  Mexican 
equivalent  for  the  American  iron  gold 
pan.  It  is  a  sort  of  broad,  conical, 
wooden  bowl  and  its  capacity  is  not 
equal  to  the  pan. 

A  "rocker"  or  "cradle"  is  a  trough  on 
rockers  somewhat  like  the  old-fashioned 
child's  cradle.  In  using  it,  a  stream  of 
water  is  caused  to  flow  into  the  device 
which  has  been  nearly  filled  with  gravel 
and  the  miner  gives  it  a  rocking  motion 
that  causes  the  contents  to  classify  or 

64 


PLACERING 

stratify  according  to  the  laws  of  specific 
gravity.  The  valuable  particles,  being 
the  heaviest,  will  settle  to  the  bottom, 
whence  they  may  be  subsequently  re- 
moved. A  "long  torn"  is  an  inclined, 
narrow  box  set  stationary  with  a  constant 
stream  of  water  entering  at  the  upper 
end.  Gravel  is  also  shoveled  into  the 
device  at  the  same  point.  The  process 
is  more  continuous  than  the  preceding 
ones,  the  values  accumulating  at  the 
bottom  of  the  lower  end,  while  the  upper 
layers  of  gravel  are  carefully  removed  by 
skimming  with  shovels.  The  work  will 
keep  two  men  busy  and  the  capacity  is 
correspondingly  greater.  With  a  long 
torn,  two  men  will  ordinarily  handle 
about  five  or  six  cubic  yards  in  ten  hours. 
Whenever  deposits  of  a  broad  area, 
with  considerable  and  uniform  depth, 
are  thought  to  be  valuable,  it  has  become 
a  practice  to  prove  their  value  by  "pros- 
pect drilling."  This  is  a  mechanical 
method  and  one  form  of  apparatus  em- 
ployed is  of  the  churn-drill  type  common 
throughout  oil  and  coal  regions.  With 
these  portable  machines,  holes  are  put 

5  65 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

down  to  bed-rock  at  intervals  across  the 
ground.  As  they  are  sunk,  the  holes  are 
cased  with  iron  pipes,  the  drillings  are 
carefully  saved  and  washed,  and  the 
values  are  estimated  for  each  foot  of 
descent.  From  the  summation  and  aver- 
ages obtained  from  all  the  holes,  a  very 
fair  knowledge  of  the  ground's  worth 
can  be  obtained. 

Intensive  placering  is  now  the  order 
of  things  and  the  marvelous  increase  in 
the  use  of  dredges  attests  the  success 
which  these  "gold  ships"  have  attained. 
It  is  very  interesting  to  watch  the  opera- 
tions of  these  huge  boats  loaded  with 
ponderous  machines,  especially  when  they 
are  installed  in  inland  regions  or  up  in 
high  mountain  gulches.  Yet  numbers  of 
them  are  thus  in  steady  use.  Wherever 
suitable  beds  with  a  tolerably  uniform 
size  of  boulders  and  gravel  are  found, 
dams  are  built  to  retain  the  flows  of 
streams  until  ponds  are  created  of  suf- 
ficient size  to  contain  and  float  the 
barges. 

Continual  improvements  are  being 
made  in  the  construction  of  these  mam- 


PLACERING 

moth  machines  with  a  view  to  economy 
in  operations  that  will  result  from  greater 
capacities.  All  costs  of  placering  are 
reckoned  per  cubic  yard  washed.  Costs 
have  been  rapidly  dropping  during  the 
past  decade  until  now  some  companies, 
with  extensive  operations,  are  handling 
dirt  at  not  to  exceed  three  cents  per 
cubic  yard  for  excavating,  washing,  wast- 
ing the  refuse,  maintenance,  repairs,  labor, 
taxes,  interest  on  investment,  and  the 
depreciation  of  equipment.  Such  figures 
will  hold  good  only  under  very  favorable 
natural  conditions  of  ground  and  climate 
such  as  prevail  in  California;  they  have 
not  been  attained  in  the  frigid  regions  of 
Alaska  nor  in  the  torrid  South  American 
interior.  In  view  of  the  wonderful  im- 
provements brought  forth  by  mechanical 
engineers,  it  is  improper  to  deny  that 
the  future  will  bring  still  further  reduc- 
tions in  placer  costs.  On  the  contrary, 
the  signs  are  good  for  material  reductions. 
Dredges  are  very  costly  in  their  instal- 
lation. They  are  usually  designed  to 
handle  so  many  thousands  of  cubic  yards 
per  day.  It  has  been  stated,  as  a  fair 

67 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

but  rough  rule,  that  "bucket"  dredges 
will  average,  in  initial  cost,  one  dollar 
for  every  cubic  yard  the  boats  will  handle 
per  month.  Thus,  if  a  dredge  of  this  type 
is  built  to  treat  fifty  or  seventy  thousand 
cubic  yards  in  a  month,  working  steadily, 
the  costs  will  be  respectively  $50,000  or 
$70,000.  Other  types  of  dredges,  known 
as  the  "dipper"  and  the  "suction,"  will 
cost  less  than  the  bucket  type,  but  have 
not  gained  general  usage. 

"Hydraulicking"  is  extensively  prac- 
ticed. This  term  signifies  the  working 
of  placer  deposits  by  water  which  is 
conducted  through  flumes  and  pipe-lines 
and,  by  means  of  nozzles  called  "giants" 
or  "monitors,"  is  directed,  in  huge  jets, 
against  the  banks  of  gravel.  These 
banks  or  walls  are  thus  torn  down  and, 
by  the  same  water,  the  loosened,  disin- 
tegrated materials  are  caused  to  flow 
into  and  through  long,  wooden,  box-like 
troughs  known  as  "sluices."  The  floors 
of  these  sluices  are  paved  with  ribs, 
cleats  or  other  obstructions  termed  "rif- 
fles" whose  function  it  is  to  retard  and 
collect  the  heavy  particles  which  may, 


PLACERING 

later,  during  the  process  of  cleaning  up, 
be  removed  as  the  valuable  product.  The 
word  "sluicing"  is  frequently  used  quite 
synonymously  with  hydraulicking. 

Costs  of  this  latter  sort  of  placering 
are  considerably  higher  than  those  of 
dredging;  but  there  are  many  deposits 
not  adapted  to  dredging  operations  that 
may  be  nicely  worked  by  sluicing,  so 
that  there  will  always  be  a  field  for  this 
scheme.  Average  costs  are  difficult  to 
obtain  since  it  happens  that  most  of  the 
companies  now  operating  hydraulically 
are  secretive  in  their  accounts.  More 
labor  is  entailed,  more  time  is  required, 
greater  delay  is  occasioned  in  cleaning 
up,  and  the  amount  of  water  used  is 
much  greater.  Where  water  is  abundant, 
this  last  item  need  not  be  considered. 
It  is  well  to  remember  that  even  a  very 
large  dredge,  while  requiring  a  continual 
and  large  flow  of  water  through  its 
devices,  can  still  operate  with  just  the 
water  in  which  it  floats,  this  water  being 
pumped  and  used  repeatedly;  whereas, 
in  the  case  of  hydraulic  mining,  the 
water  may  be  used  but  once  and,  conse- 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

quently,  there  must  be  a  large  supply 
-and  at  a  good  head  or  pressure. 

But,  in  spite  of  these  disparaging 
points,  we  find  instances  in  which,  under 
peculiarly  favorable  conditions,  hydrau- 
licking  has  been  carried  on  at  very  low 
figures.  E.  B.  Wilson  says:  "The  yield 
of  the  gravel  at  North  Bloomfield  was 
7.75  cents  per  cubic  yard;  the  cost  of 
mining,  4.1  cents  per  cubic  yard.  The 
yield  per  cubic  yard  of  gravel  at  La 
Grange  was  10.19  cents,  the  cost  of 
mining,  6  cents.  The  costs  of  mining  at 
these  two  mines  would  analyze  about  as 
follows:  Labor,  60  per  cent;  supplies, 
17  per  cent;  water,  13  per  cent;  office, 
10  per  cent.  Ground  carrying  but  3.99 
cents  per  cubic  yard  has  been  worked  at 
a  profit  at  the  first  mine.  With  such  a 
small  margin  to  work  on,  it  is  evident 
that  skill  and  executive  ability  must  be 
provided  from  the  pipemen  up."  It  is 
claimed  that  an  Idaho  mine  was  worked 
profitably  with  less  than  two  cents  value 
in  the  dirt,  but  this  is  to  be  regarded 
with  some  doubt. 

There  are  large  deposits  in  the  arid 

70 


I 


PLACERING 

portions  of  the  globe  where  water  for 
working  is  not  obtainable.  To  meet  such 
conditions,  numerous  inventions  continue 
to  be  placed  upon  the  market.  These 
devices  are  all  planned  in  such  a  way  as 
to  use  very  little  or  no  water.  If  water 
is  required  at  all,  the  machines  are  ex- 
pected to  use  it  repeatedly.  The  machines 
are  built  to  effect  the  segregation  of  the 
precious  contents  gravitationally,  electro- 
statically, pneumatically,  and  by  amalga- 
mation with  mercury.  It  is  too  early  to 
say  how  successful  such  devices  will  prove 
in  commercial  operations.  Because  some 
of  them  have  not  "made  good"  does  not 
mean  that  genius  will  not  yet  cope  with 
the  situation;  and  we  look  into  the  future 
to  see  large  operations  efficiently  and 
economically  conducted  by  dry  placer 
machinery.  There  are  now  no  authentic 
figures  obtainable  upon  this  question  of 
dry  placering  costs. 


VIII 
OPEN  MINING. 

Some  mention  has  been  already  made 
of  open  mining.  The  greatest  develop- 
ment of  this  sort  of  mining  has  come  about 
since  the  application  of  the  modern  steam 
shovel  to  the  excavation  of  ore.  This 
practice  was  an  American  innovation 
and  it  is  being  adopted  throughout  the 
world  wherever  natural  conditions  will 
warrant. 

Within  the  past  few  years,  immense 
bodies  of  iron  ore  have  been  discovered  in 
northern  Minnesota  and  the  adoption  of 
these  immense,  mechanically  operated 
shovels  has  worked  such  economies  in  the 
mining  of  this  kind  of  ore  that  entirely 
new  cost  figures  have  been  established 
and  tonnages  are  being  produced  which, 
a  few  years  ago,  would  have  seemed 
unbelievable.  There  are  about  a  dozen 
mines  of  this  "open  pit"  type  that  have 
each  produced  over  a  million  tons  of  ore 
per  year  in  a  season  that  must  cease  with 

72 


OPEN  MINING 

the  close  of  navigation  on  the  Great 
Lakes.  One  mine  has  shipped  over  three* 
million  tons  a  season. 

At  the  Utah  Copper  Company's  mine 
in  Bingham  Canon,  Utah,  a  great  deposit 
of  low  grade,  copper-bearing  eruptive 
rock  is  being  handled  upon  a  steep  moun- 
tain-side by  this  same  scheme.  This  ore 
averages  a  little  less  than  two  per  cent,  in 
copper,  but  so  economical  is  the  handling 
of  it  in  such  vast  amounts  that  a  neat 
profit  is  made  above  all  mining,  transpor- 
tation and  milling  charges.  When  the 
red  metal  sells  at  thirteen  cents  per  pound, 
the  gross  value  of  this  ore  is  about  $5.20 
per  ton.  This  mine  has  maintained  an 
output  of  ten  thousand  tons  or  more  per 
day  over  long  periods. 

A  famous  gold  mine  in  Queensland, 
Australia — the  Mount  Morgan — is  also 
being  worked  by  steam  shovel  methods. 
The  deposit  is  here  in  the  form  of  a  small 
mountain  and  the  operations  are  grad- 
ually razing  this  landmark  to  the  level 
of  the  surrounding  plains. 

The  mining  of  low-grade  gold  ores  by 
open-pit  methods  has  taken  hold  in  Amer- 

73 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  MINING 

ica,  and  an  example  of  the  practice  may 
be  found  at  the  Wasp  No.  2  mine  in  the 
Black  Hills.  According  to  published  ac- 
counts of  the  operations  of  this  company, 
all  of  the  costs  of  mining  and  treating  the 
ore  amount  to  only  $1.02  per  ton.  The 
ore  body  is  a  bed  of  quartzite  lying  nearly 
flat,  and  averaging  in  the  neighborhood 
of  only  $2.50  per  ton  in  gold,  the  only 
mineral  of  value.  The  recovery  of  this 
metal  is  at  the  rate  of  between  75  and  80 
per  cent,  efficiency,  or  about  $2  from  each 
ton.  The  net  profit  is  therefore  close  to 
one  dollar  per  ton.  This  very  modern 
scheme  of  mining  has  been  made  possible 
through  the  recent  advances  made  in  the 
cyanidation  of  ore,  and  it  is  going  to  pave 
the  way  for  many  more  such  mining 
plants. 

The  Nevada  Consolidated  Copper 
Company  has  conducted  vast  mining 
operations  "in  the  open"  at  Ely,  Nevada, 
by  the  use  of  95-ton  shovels  having  a 
capacity  of  two  and  one-half  cubic  yards 
per  dip.  One  shovel  has  handled  as  high 
as  2,800  cubic  yards  (the  equivalent  of 
about  5,500  tons)  in  nine  hours;  but  this 

74 


Hi 


OPEN  MINING 

must  be  recognized  as  an  exceptional  run, 
and  cannot  be  taken  as  an  average.  The 
ore  has  a  thickness  of  about  200  feet  and 
covers  many  acres.  As  in  the  majority 
of  such  properties,  there  is  here  a  large 
amount  of  "overburden"  to  be  removed 
and  disposed  of  before  the  ore  can  be 
excavated.  This  process  of  uncovering 
the  ore  body  by  the  removal  of  the  over- 
burden is  called  "stripping."  The  cost 
per  ton  of  ore  mined  is  said  to  average 
55  cents. 

In  an  open  mine  there  must  be  main- 
tained a  system  of  continually  changing 
tracks  placed  upon  grades  (sometimes 
rather  steep)  and  with  sharp  curves. 
With  multiple  switches,  numbers  of  small 
locomotives  are  kept  busy  pulling  and 
pushing  up  and  down  the  tracks  with 
their  strings  of  loaded  cars  and  replac- 
ing the  "loads"  with  "empties."  When 
such  operations  are  upon  a  mountain- 
side, a  very  beautiful  panoramic  view 
may  be  had  from  the  opposite  side  of 
the  gulch. 

Generally,  the  ore  material  is  disinte- 
grated to  some  extent.  In  some  cases,  it 

75 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  MINING 

will  actually  crumble  down  before  the 
advance  of  a  steam  shovel.  In  other 
mines,  it  is  necessary  to  drill  large  holes 
which  are  loaded  and  blasted. 

It  is  becoming  more  and  more  import- 
ant for  the  active  mining  man  to  post 
himself  upon  the  methods  and  economies 
of  this  latter-day  mining  practice.  The 
development  of  this  open  or  surface  min- 
ing has  introduced  entirely  new  economic 
ideas.  With  no  costs  for  timbering  of 
mine  passages,  for  ventilation,  or  for 
hoisting,  and  with  a  very  material  de- 
crease in  manual  labor  per  ton  mined, 
immense  masses  of  rocks  are  now  really 
ore,  although  a  few  years  ago  they  were 
nothing  but  lean,  country  rock. 

In  consequence  of  the  success  attained 
by  the  pioneers  in  this  kind  of  mining, 
there  has  been  created  a  demand  for 
properties  possessing  large  deposits  of  low 
grade  ore  that  is  workable  on  this  inten- 
sive scale.  Copper  properties  have  been 
holding  a  prominent  place  recently  and 
stockbrokers  carry  regular  lists  of  "Por- 
phyries," this  nickname  having  been 
coined  to  cover  the  companies  operating 

76 


OPEN  MINING 

in  the  low  grade  porphyry  ores  of  the 
Western  United  States.  Not  all  of  these 
porphyry  companies  will  use  surface  min- 
ing methods.  Some  companies  in  the 
Globe  District  of  Arizona  have  started 
extensive  underground  schemes  for  min- 
ing large  tonnages  very  cheaply  by  "cav- 
ing" methods. 


IX 

CONSIDERATIONS  PRECEDING 
THE  OPENING  OF  MINES. 

The  word  "exploitation"  is  used  by 
many  mining  men  and  engineers  to  sig- 
nify a  plan  of  so  opening  up  ore  deposits 
as  to  render  the  contents  removable.  The 
same  persons  use  the  word  "mining"  to 
mean  the  operations  involved  in  the 
actual  extraction  of  the  ore  exploited. 
It  is  sometimes  difficult  to  draw  any  line 
between  the  meanings  of  these  two  words 
for,  as  handled  by  different  men,  with 
varying  shades  of  intention,  they  are 
sometimes  synonymous.  Thus,  if  ex- 
ploiting an  underground  mine,  which 
carries  ore  right  from  the  surface,  means 
developing  the  mine  in  such  a  way  as  to 
provide  for  a  large,  steady  production, 
it  is  difficult  to  see  why  the  ore  taken  out 
in  this  process  cannot  be  said  to  be 
"mined." 

By  "dead  work"  is  usually  meant  that 
work  of  opening  up  a  mine  which  will  put 

78 


CONSIDERATIONS 

or  keep  it  in  a  producing  condition  but 
which  does  not  supply  any  remuneration 
in  the  shape  of  ore  (or  coal).  Again,  as 
used  by  some  men,  there  is  little  distinc- 
tion between  this  work  and  exploitation. 
There  may,  however,  be  lines  reasonably 
drawn  between  these  three  terms,  and 
therefore  the  following  definitions  are 
proposed: 

Dead  work  is  such  work  as  is  necessary 
to  develop  an  ore  body,  but  it  does  not 
produce  any  ore.  It  may  be  prosecuted 
for  drainage  or  ventilation  purposes  or 
for  creating  passage-ways  for  men  and 
products. 

Exploitation  is  also  work  performed  in 
opening  up  or  developing  a  property,  but 
it  does  not  contemplate  the  value  of  the 
extracted  materials  which  may,  or  may 
not,  be  of  any  commercial  importance. 
Indeed,  much  ore  might  be  extracted 
during  work  which  was  carried  on  merely 
to  define  extents  or  boundaries  of  ore 
bodies.  In  this  last  supposition,  the  orig- 
inal sense  of  exploration  is  brought  out 
and  this  should  serve  to  fix  the  definition 
clearly  in  mind. 

70 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

Mining  may  be  restricted  to  mean  the 
methods  and  work  involved  in  the  profit- 
able production  of  the  mine's  ore  (or  coal). 
The  term  would  not  be  used  to  cover  oper- 
ations of  shaft-sinking,  tunneling,  and 
the  like,  unless  such  work  be  in  the  valu- 
able materials.  Mining  may  be  said  to 
begin  whenever  there  is  produced  an  out- 
put upon  which  there  is  some  profit.  Ex- 
ploitation may  be  in  valuable  ground.  If 
so,  we  may  say  that  mining  is  in  prog- 
ress during  the  exploitation.  The  driving 
of  levels  or  drifts  in  an  ore  body — or  of 
entries  in  a  bed  of  coal — produces  the 
valuable  products  of  the  mine,  and  we 
may,  therefore,  consider  that  mining  is 
taking  place. 

The  driving  of  a  crosscut  through  bar- 
ren rock  to  reach  an  ore  body  is  dead 
work;  but  the  driving  of  a  drift  or  level 
in  a  vein  is  either  exploitation  or  mining. 
Dead  work  produces  no  ore.  Exploita- 
tion may,  or  may  not,  produce  ore.  Min- 
ing must  produce  ore. 

Throughout  all  of  the  above  and  the 
following  discussion  of  this  chapter,  the 
reader  should  bear  in  mind  the  point  that 

80 


CONSIDERATIONS 

the  word  "coal"  may  be  substituted  for 
the  word  "ore"  without  altering  the  sub- 
stance of  the  definitions  or  the  conclusions. 
Before  a  mine  is  opened  up,  the  econ- 
omist-manager will  consider  many  items. 
In  the  first  place,  care  must  be  exercised 
in  the  examination  of  the  title  to  the  prop- 
erty. A  mineral  property  may  have 
passed  through  the  most  complicated 
kind  of  transfers  of  fractional  interests 
in  the  title,  just  as  is  true  with  ordinary 
real  estate.  The  abstract  must  be  traced 
back  clear  to  the  issuance  of  patent  from 
the  Government,  and  then  on  back  to  the 
original  location.  With  an  undeveloped 
property  (a  prospect),  this  precaution  is 
essential  to  estop  any  possible  pretensions 
to  ownership,  by  outside  parties,  in  case 
the  ground  subsequently  turns  out  to  be 
exceptionally  valuable.  It  has  often  been 
the  case  that  no  obstructions  from  any 
adverse  claimants  have  been  met  until 
owners  have,  in  good  faith  and  at  great 
expense,  developed  splendid  mines.  Then 
suits  for  possession  or  partial  ownership 
have  been  instituted,  sometimes  with 
marked  success  for  the  plaintiffs.  There 

6  81 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

are  persons  who  make  it  a  special  line  of 
business  to  examine  titles  to  mining  prop- 
erty, and  it  is  economy  for  the  average 
manager  to  employ  such  experienced  men 
to  attend  to  these  matters. 

Topographical  considerations  will  hold  a 
place  in  the  study  preceding  the  opening 
of  a  new  mine.  The  nature  of  the  surface 
of  the  property  and  the  surrounding  coun- 
try will  largely  influence  in  the  selection 
of  the  proper  site  for  the  mine's  mouth. 
Neglect  upon  this  point  has  been  a  com- 
mon cause  of  failure  in  mining  operations. 

A  mine  opening  must  be  away  from 
all  dangers  of  snow-slides,  rock-slides, 
cloud-bursts  and  deluges  from  overflowing 
streams  or  breaking  dams.  It  may  make 
a  difference  in  the  mine's  ventilation  as 
to  which  direction  the  prevailing  winds 
blow  and  therefore  upon  which  side  of  a 
hill  the  mouth  be  opened. 

Transportation  facilities  must  be  given 
due  thought.  If  means  are  not  already 
at  hand,  one  must  inquire  into  the  feasi- 
bility of  constructing  some  form  of  carrier; 
and  here,  again,  will  enter  the  question  of 
the  surface's  contour.  If  a  railroad  is  out 

82 


CONSIDERATIONS 

of  question,  possibly  an  aerial  tramway 
may  be  constructed.  These  modern  con- 
veyances stop  at  no  obstacles  of  surface 
configuration  and  are  dependent  only 
upon  the  necessity  of  having  the  point 
of  delivery  lower  in  altitude  than  the 
point  of  loading  at  the  mine.  With  some 
of  the  modern  improvements  in  these  in- 
stallations, mine  products  are  being  trans- 
ported up-hill  as  well  as  down-hill  through 
the  application  of  power.  In  mining 
regions,  it  is  generally  the  case  that  the 
mines,  themselves,  are  above  the  settle- 
ments in  which  are  the  railroads  or  treat- 
ment plants,  so  that  the  mine  products 
will  transport  readily  by  the  natural  force 
of  gravity. 

Climate  holds  an  important  place  in 
the  economics  of  mining.  The  working 
of  very  rich  pieces  of  ground  may  prove 
a  losing  proposition  in  some  portions  of 
the  world  where  the  climatic  conditions 
are  such  as  to  render  operations  possible 
during  only  a  very  small  portion  of  the 
year.  Extremes  of  heat  or  cold,  malaria 
or  other  pestilential  obstacles,  long  rainy 
seasons  with  floods,  and  the  hostility  of 

83 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

native  humans,  beasts  or  insects  have 
accounted  for  the  abandonment  of  seem- 
ingly attractive  mining  projects. 

The  question  of  labor  must  be  given  due 
thought.  It  is  true  that  the  best  miners 
on  earth  are  Americans.  We  do  not  deny 
that  many  of  our  miners  are  of  foreign 
birth,  but  the  fact  remains  that  they 
perform  better  and  more  intelligent  serv- 
ice than  do  their  fellow  countrymen 
who  have  not  been  adopted  into  our 
country.  Our  men  are  in  demand  in  the 
mining  development  of  foreign  countries. 
An  American  mine  manager  will  always 
experience  dissatisfaction  while  endeavor- 
ing to  get,  from  natives  in  foreign  parts, 
the  same  efficiency  that  he  is  accustomed 
to  receive  from  the  miners  "at  home." 
He  may  be  paying  a  good  deal  less  per 
capita  for  such  labor,  but  he  finds  he  is 
actually  paying  more  per  ton  of  output. 

Even  within  a  single  country,  there  are 
notable  differences  in  the  worth  of  labor. 
The  natives  of  some  of  the  Mexican  states 
are  far  preferable  to  those  of  other  states. 
Within  the  United  States,  there  may  be 
discerned  material  differences  between  the 

84 


CONSIDERATIONS 

efficiencies  of  the  citizens  of  various  sec- 
tions, when  it  comes  to  mining.  One 
cannot  procure  as  competent  miners  in 
some  of  the  agricultural  states  as  in  the 
typical  mining  states.  This  is  but  to  be 
expected.  For  instance,  there  are  depos- 
its of  lead  ore  in  the  "moonshine"  regions 
of  Kentucky  which  have  never  been  suc- 
cessfully worked,  and  the  real  cause  of 
failure,  in  the  writer's  belief,  lies  in  the 
inability  of  superintendents  to  obtain  real 
miners  either  in  that  region  or  from  the 
outside.  The  residents  will  never  become 
miners;  outsiders  will  not  enter  for  work 
under  existing  sociological  conditions. 

The  question  of  unionism  is  sometimes 
held  by  managers  as  a  deciding  one  when 
debating  the  opening  of  a  mine.  While 
there  are  those  who  will  broadly  denounce 
such  organizations,  there  may  be  found 
other  and  just  as  successful  mine  opera- 
tors who  declare  that  the  effects  of  union 
control  over  their  miners  are  beneficial  to 
their  companies'  interests.  Probably  the 
greatest  objection  to  unionism  raised  by 
operators  is  that  they  resent  the  dicta- 
tion that  accompanies  the  inauguration 

85 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

of  union  rules  in  their  mines.  The  owners 
and  managers  prefer  to  run  their  own 
business  to  suit  themselves.  Some  man- 
agers are  so  imbued  with  this  conviction 
of  their  own  rights  that  they  will  refuse 
to  open  up  mines  or,  if  they  are  operating, 
they  will  close  down  their  mines  before 
they  will  submit  to  the  demands  made 
upon  them  by  the  union  officials. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  mine  man- 
agers who  prefer  the  presence  of  some 
central,  labor-controlling  body;  for  they 
believe  that  the  men  who  belong  to  such 
a  large  federation  or  organization  will, 
and  do,  have  less  complaint  to  make  and 
therefore  work  more  freely  than  is  the 
case  with  the  independent  laborers.  The 
argument  is  that  these  union  men  are 
satisfied  because  they  feel  that  their 
interests  are  being  looked  after  with  a 
sort  of  attention  that  they,  individually, 
could  not  give. 

This  is  not  a  place  to  discuss  the  crimes 
that  have  been  laid  at  the  doors  of  both 
the  labor  organizations  and  the  mine 
owners'  associations.  It  is  safe  to  assume 
that  wrong  has  probably  been  done  by 

86 


CONSIDERATIONS 

both  sides.  But  it  is  furthermore  right 
to  believe  that  most  of  the  crimes  were 
not  authorized,  nor  recognized,  by  the 
officers  or  the  majority  of  members  of 
either  side.  Individual  members  must 
not  be  taken  as  averages  of  the  member- 
ship in  any  kind  of  civil,  social  or  political 
organization. 

It  seems  entirely  wrong  that  politics 
should  enter  into  the  considerations  of  a 
mine  manager  whose  operations  are  ap- 
parently so  apart  from  affairs  of  state; 
but  the  fact  remains  that  there  are  places 
where  mining  operations  cannot  be  car- 
ried on  without  the  good  will  of  certain 
officials  of  the  state  or  national  govern- 
ments. It  is  not  advisable  to  enter  into 
any  compromising  terms  to  gain  priv- 
ileges for  carrying  on  any  legitimate 
business  for  there  are  other,  better  ways, 
generally,  of  attaining  the  justice  that  is 
deserved. 

One  must  not  omit  to  investigate  the 
sources  of  supply  for  all  the  needs  of  a  mine 
and  its  camp.  There  are  many  kinds  of 
materials  needed  to  keep  a  mine  going. 
Fuel,  machinery,  timber,  water,  food  for 

87 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

men  and  beasts,  lumber,  and  all  house- 
hold furnishings  and  necessities  must 
come  from  some  markets  or  natural 
sources.  It  behooves  the  cautious  manager 
to  see  that  all  these  things  may  be  had  in 
ample  amount  and  at  figures  which  will 
not  prove  annihilating  to  his  business. 

In  Utah,  there  are  mines  which  have 
all  their  timbers  framed  in  and  shipped 
from  the  forests  of  Oregon,  the  sawing 
and  framing  being  done  before  shipment 
to  save  on  freight.  The  fir  of  Oregon  is 
shipped  to  distant  Australia  for  mining 
purposes.  The  arid  camps  of  Nevada  get 
their  supplies  of  timber  from  the  sister 
state,  California.  The  Michigan  mines 
are  fortunate  in  being  in  a  lumber  region. 
Colorado's  metal  mines  are  more  favored 
in  the  matter  of  timbers  than  are  the  coal 
mines  of  the  same  state.  Most  of  the  coal 
mines  are  upon  the  barren  plains,  while 
the  metal  mines  are  chiefly  in  the  wooded 
mountains. 

Water  may  be  too  scarce  for  the  needs 
of  a  mine  or  its  community.  There  may 
not  be  sufficient  to  supply  boilers  or  a 
mill,  or  for  the  domestic  purposes  of  the 


CONSIDERATIONS 

workers.  On  the  other  hand,  water  may 
be  so  abundant  in  the  mine  workings  as 
to  prove  a  deterrent  factor  in  profitable 
operation.  With  shaft  mines,  having 
deep  workings  and  low  grades  of  ore,  if 
water  must  be  delivered  mechanically, 
the  costs  for  such  drainage  are  frequently 
prohibitive  of  mining.  Some  mines,  in 
arid  regions,  have  been  fortunate  in  strik- 
ing such  flows  of  underground  water  that 
it  has  been  possible  to  operate  mills  right 
at  the  mines.  In  this  way,  the  cost  of 
water  hoisting  has  been  more  than  com- 
pensated in  the  milling  benefits  which, 
in  turn,  have  decreased  freights  and 
treatment  charges. 

Machinery  is  usually  purchased  at  cen- 
tres of  mining  supplies  and  manufactures. 
San  Francisco,  Los  Angeles,  Salt  Lake 
City,  Denver  and  Chicago  are  the  prin- 
cipal rendezvous  in  the  West  for  mining 
men  in  need  of  machinery.  Mexico  City 
is,  similarly,  the  outfitting  point  for  the 
mines  of  southern  Mexico.  The  United 
States  holds  the  supremacy  of  the  world 
in  the  matter  of  equipping  mines  and 
mills,  large  orders  of  American-made 

89 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

mining  machinery  being  shipped  to  even 
the  antipodes. 

The  nearer  a  property  is  to  a  depot  of 
supplies,  the  less  is  bound  to  be  the  cost 
of  getting  goods  onto  the  ground.  It  is 
this  last  item — the  delivery  of  goods— 
that  must  be  recognized  as  a  very  per- 
tinent, and  sometimes  a  critical,  factor 
upon  the  cost  side  of  mining  accounts. 
Mines  that  are  remote  or  in  rugged 
countries  are  frequently  dependent  upon 
animal  transportation.  In  some  cases, 
machinery  going  to  the  mines  must  be 
so  built  that  it  may  be  taken  apart  into 
small  portions  suitable  for  loading  upon 
the  backs  of  horses  or  burros,  or  even, 
in  the  Andes,  upon  the  frail  llamas. 

Operations,  if  planned  to  be  conducted 
for  a  long  term  of  years  and  therefore 
warranting  the  installation  of  large  and 
expensive  plants,  should  be  based  upon 
the  holding  of  extensive  ore-bearing 
ground.  Here  enters  the  notion  of  the 
shape  and  size  of  a  mining  property. 

With  some  kinds  of  mining  ground, 
the  best  form  for  the  holdings  would 
probably  be  a  compact,  approximately 

90 


CONSIDERATIONS 

equilateral  tract,  covering  a  reasonably 
large  acreage.  This  would  be  the  case 
with  ores  that  occur  in  sedimentary  beds, 
for  instance,  where  it  is  advisable  to  have 
the  mining  plant  centrally  located  so  as 
to  work  expeditiously  the  entire  area. 
This  would  apply  to  a  region  like  the 
Cripple  Creek  District,  which  contains 
innumerable  veins  running  in  all  direc- 
tions but  displaying  no  outcrops. 

In  other  instances,  the  most  desirable 
shape  might  be  long,  narrow  strips  so 
laid  off  as  to  contain  the  strikes  of  persist- 
ent lodes  or  veins,  as  those  of  the  wonder- 
ful Comstock  Lode  region.  It  is  not  acre- 
age that  counts  here  so  much  as  lineal 
extent. 

In  the  Transvaal,  land  is  held  in  rec- 
tangular blocks.  The  first  owners  of  the 
ground  took  it  up  for  agricultural  pur- 
poses. This  same  statement  is  also  true 
of  the  mining  properties  in  the  Joplin 
District  of  Missouri  and  Kansas. 

In  the  case  of  the  South  African  proper- 
ties, every  company  has  definite  boun- 
daries to  which  operations  maybe  planned. 
Hence  it  is  possible  for  the  management 

91 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

to  so  plant  any  mine  as  to  operate  it  at  a 
given  rate  for  a  predetermined  life  of 
the  enterprise.  The  work  is  planned  to 
maintain  a  certain  output  that  will  ex- 
haust the  ore  bodies  in  just  so  many  years, 
and  all  the  equipment  may  thus  be  pur- 
chased with  the  forecast  that  it  will  serve 
its  purpose  and  perform  its  economic 
share  within  the  prescribed  time. 

This  notion  will  be  more  readily  under- 
stood when  we  consider  the  various  types 
of  ore  bodies.  With  properties  wherein 
there  is  no  possible  way  of  predicting  the 
number,  size,  and  worth  of  discoverable 
ore  bodies,  the  life  is  wholly  problematical 
and  it  is  therefore  difficult  for  a  manager 
to  decide  how  much  he  should  expend  in 
the  initial  equipment. 


MINE  OPENINGS. 

In  every  new  mining  project,  there  is 
much  to  be  considered  concerning  the 
expediency  of  opening  up  through  shafts, 
inclines  or  adits.  More  attention  has 
lately  been  given  to  this  subject  than 
formerly.  There  are  very  good  reasons 
for  the  selection  of  any  one  of  these  kinds 
of  mine  openings. 

The  words  shaft,  incline,  and  tunnel 
have  been  handled  with  careless  mean- 
ings by  mining  men.  It  is  time  that  some 
definitions  be  accepted  so  that  every- 
body will  use  these  terms  with  the  same 
meanings. 

A  shaft  has  loosely  been  any  steep  open- 
ing sunk  through  the  ground.  An  incline 
— sometimes  spoken  of  also  as  an  incline 
shaft — has  been  taken  to  mean  an  open- 
ing resembling  a  shaft,  but  not  very  steep 
and  not  approaching  verticality.  Right 
here,  there  has  been  too  much  latitude 

93 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

of  speech  and  it  has  entailed  the  necessity 
of  many  awkward  explanations. 

By  a  tunnel  has  been  intended  any 
(approximately)  horizontal  passageway 
driven  from  the  natural  surface.  Objec- 
tion to  this  use  of  the  word  rests  in  the 
strict  definition  of  a  tunnel,  which  states 
that  it  must  have  both  ends  open  to  the 
natural  surface  of  the  earth,  as  for  exam- 
ple, an  irrigation  or  a  railroad  tunnel.  A 
level  passageway  which  has  but  one  end 
open  to  daylight  is  not  properly  spoken 
of  as  a  tunnel.  In  mining  practice,  prac- 
tically every  horizontal  opening  of  this 
nature  is  open  at  only  one  end,  and  it  is 
an  adit  rather  than  a  tunnel.  If  the 
precaution  of  speaking  of  it  as  a  "mining 
tunnel"  is  observed,  very  well,  for  this, 
may  be  taken  to  be  an  expression  synony- 
mous with  adit.  The  latter  term  is,  how- 
ever, shorter  and  more  correct. 

For  the  sake  of  a  uniform  usage,  the 
following  definitions  are  proposed.  Their 
use  will  conform  with  the  usages  of  those 
well-informed  persons  who  adhere  to  cor- 
rect speech. 

A  shaft  is  a  truly  vertical  mine  passage 

04 


MINE  OPENINGS 

which  may,  or  may  not,  be  sunk  in  or 
along  an  ore  or  a  coal  body. 

An  incline  is  any  mine  passage  which 
occupies  a  sloping  position  and  which 
may,  or  may  not,  maintain  a  uniform 
inclination  throughout  its  length.  It 
may  be  sunk  along,  or  in,  a  pitching  vein 
or  seam  and  it  may  thus  conform  to  the 
irregularities  of  the  dip  of  such  body.  It 
is  neither  horizontal  nor  vertical.  Such 
an  inclined  passage  following  a  seam  of 
coal  is  known  as  a  slope. 

It  sometimes  happens,  especially  in 
coal  mining,  that  a  sloping  passageway 
is  driven  through  barren  rock  either  to  get- 
at  known  bodies  by  the  shortest  means  or 
to  establish  uniform  grades  for  tracks.  In 
a  strict  sense,  these  are  not  inclines  or 
slopes,  for  they  do  not  even  approximately 
follow,  nor  parallel,  bodies  of  value.  The 
miner's  term  for  such  an  opening  is  rock 
slope. 

An  adit  or  mining  tunnel  is  a  horizontal 
opening  driven  from  the  surface.  If  it  be 
driven  along  an  ore  body,  as  a  vein,  it  is 
properly  called  a  vein  adit;  if  it  is  driven 
across  barren  country  to  intercept  pre- 
95 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

sumed  or  known  bodies,  it  is  spoken  of  as 
a  crosscut  adit.  All  adits  must  be  given  a 
small  amount  of  grade  for  drainage  neces- 
sities. 

Before  getting  underground  we  should 
consider  what  is  required  in  the  way  of 
opening  our  mine;  what  is  positively 
known  about  our  body  of  coal  or  ore; 
and  what  conditions  are  liable  to  con- 
front us  later  on.  We  must  consider  the 
type  of  ore  body;  character  of  material  to 
be  extracted;  average  thickness  and  hard- 
ness of  the  body;  desired  tonnage;  power 
facilities;  probable  surface  and  under- 
ground drainage  to  be  maintained;  and 
dozens  of  other  things  which  only  the 
experienced  man  will  think  of  and  appre- 
ciate. The  right  kind  of  a  manager  will 
know  that  he  cannot  afford  to  overlook 
such  points. 

Every  case  involves  different  contin- 
gencies, and  therefore  extreme  forethought 
must  be  given  to  the  subject  before  decid- 
ing upon  any  particular  kind  of  an  open- 
ing into  the  ground  for  mining  purposes. 
This  remark  does  not  apply  to  such  open- 
ings as  prospect  drill-holes,  openings 

96 


MINE  OPENINGS 

which  are  not  for  mining  purposes,  but 
for  exploitation.  Assuming  that  suffi- 
cient data  are  known  concerning  the  prop- 
erty to  warrant  the  expenditures  incident 
to  the  making  of  a  mine,  the  question 
remains  as  to  the  best  way  of  proceeding. 

It  is  a  well-established  fact  that  it  is 
much  cheaper  to  drive  an  adit  than  to 
sink  a  shaft  of  equal  transporting  capac- 
ity. It  is  also  cheaper  to  drive  an  adit 
than  to  sink  an  incline.  If  the  topography 
is  such  that  an  adit  can  be  driven  into  or 
beneath  an  ore  body  and  thus  expose  it 
from  a  low  elevation,  the  temptation  is 
strong  and  along  lines  of  good  practice 
to  do  so.  If  the  country  is  quite  flat  or 
nearly  so,  or,  if  the  surface  is  such  that, 
while  rough,  an  adit  of  reasonable  length 
cannot  be  driven  to  tap  the  valuable 
mineral  and  handle  it  economically,  then 
it  is  good  practice  to  decide  upon  a  shaft 
mine. 

An  adit  will  not  only  be  cheaper,  foot 
for  foot,  than  a  shaft  or  incline,  but,  if 
given  the  proper,  slight  grade,  it  will 
afford  a  natural  drainage  outlet  for  all 
subsequent  workings  above  its  level.  The 

7  97 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

cost  of  pumping,  as  already  suggested, 
may  be  a  considerable  item  and  it  may  be 
a  deciding  factor  in  favor  of  an  adit  when 
this  form  of  opening  is  possible. 

Furthermore,  an  adit  will  obviate  the 
installation  and  use  of  hoisting  machin- 
ery, and  thus  there  may  be  maintained  a 
greater  efficiency  in  the  operating  expense 
of  the  mine  than  would  be  possible  with 
a  shaft. 

Again,  it  is  a  simpler  and  cheaper 
matter  to  maintain  a  mining  tunnel  in 
working  shape  than  it  is  a  shaft,  particu- 
larly in  bad  ground.  By  the  settling  or 
"working"  of  the  ground,  a  shaft  may 
be  thrown  perhaps  but  slightly  out  of 
alignment  and  annoying  interferences  will 
be  experienced  in  hoisting,  especially 
when  rapid  and  uninterrupted  hoisting  is 
necessary  to  maintain  the  desired  output. 
While  the  same  amount  of  disturbance 
does  take  place  in  an  adit,  it  is  an  easy 
matter  to  readjust  track  grades  while  con- 
tinuing regular  haulage  operations. 

The  timbers,  in  the  case  of  either  a  shaft 
or  an  adit,  will  require  occasional  renewal, 
but  the  expense  of  such  repairs  is  less  in 

96 


MINE  OPENINGS 

adits  than  in  shafts  or  inclines,  while 
the  delay  to  other  operations  of  min- 
ing, in  the  case  of  the  adit,  will  be  in- 
appreciable. 

Topography  has  been  referred  to  above, 
but  it  must  be  again  briefly  mentioned. 
There  are  some  places  in  which  ore  bodies 
extend  to,  or  exist  at,  such  depths  that 
adits  could  not  be  projected  to  get  be- 
neath enough  of  the  ore  to  warrant  their 
construction.  An  adit  mine  is  not  a  prac- 
ticable thing  in  a  flat  country  like  Nevada 
or  the  Rand,  but  in  the  rough  country  of 
the  San  Juan  it  is  the  customary  kind  of 
a  mine.  In  the  very  early  days  of  Corn- 
stock  Lode  mining,  shafts  were  sunk  by 
each  of  the  hundreds  of  companies.  Be- 
fore a  great  while,  the  advantages  that 
would  accrue  from  having  a  deep  "tun- 
nel" became  evident,  and  the  famous 
Sutro  Tunnel,  with  its  historic,  checkered 
career,  was  driven.  Although  it  loomed 
up  like  a  gigantic  undertaking  for  that 
period,  the  immense  prospective  or  future 
value  of  it  could  not  be  denied. 

The  following  relative  advantages  of 
the  several  types  of  mine  mouths  are  in 

99 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  MINING 

addition  to  those  already  given  and  are 
worth  consideration: 

With  an  incline,  the  value  of  a  tabular 
deposit  is  determined  as  work  progresses; 
the  course  and  dip  of  the  body  will  be 
known  at  all  depths  along  the  incline; 
the  body  may  be  explored  from  the  incline 
m  both  directions,  simultaneously,  with 
a  resulting  doubling  of  the  development 
and  production;  all,  or  nearly  all,  the 
material  removed  is  "vein  stuff"  and  its 
value  may  repay  the  sinking  expenses; 
there  is  no  losing  of  the  ore  body  unless 
a  geological  fault  is  met. 

With  a  shaft,  more  rapid  hoisting  is 
possible  than  with  an  incline;  the  timber- 
ing labor  is  less  than  in  the  case  of  an 
incline,  but  greater  than  in  the  case  of  an 
adit;  with  ground  containing  ore  bodies 
in  irregular  masses  and  at  no  uniform 
intervals,  vertically  or  horizontally,  sta- 
tions and  levels  may  be  started  wherever 
desirable;  the  crosscuts  which  are  usually 
necessary  to  reach  the  bodies  may  dis- 
close otherwise  unknown  bodies. 

With  a  vein  adit,  the  vein  is  prospected 
as  work  advances;  the  ore  removed  may 
100 


MINE  OPENINGS:    -X0RN 

pay  its  own  way,  as  it  were;  the  drainage 
is  automatic;  ore  is  transportable  from 
the  mine  by  haulage  rather  than  by  hoist- 
ing; the  ore  in  place  is  above  the  level 
and  will  handle  itself  to  the  outgoing 
passage  by  gravity. 

With  a  crosscut  adit,  in  addition  to 
the  last  three  advantages  noted  for  the 
vein  adit,  there  is  bound  to  be  explora- 
tion of  the  ground  upon  at  least  one  side 
of  the  known  body;  there  will  generally 
be  easier  haulage  because  of  the  straighter 
track,  since  an  adit  driven  along  a  vein 
will  conform  to  the  geological  irregulari- 
ties and  the  track  is  bound  to  be  more  or 
less  crooked. 

Without  counting  upon  the  doubtful 
success  of  the  numerous  propositions  in 
tunneling  machines,  but  judging  only 
from  past  experiences,  we  may  say  that 
a  shaft  will  cost  about  three  times  as 
much  as  a  "tunnel"  of  equal  transport- 
ing capacity.  If  the  ground  is  wet,  the 
discrepancy  in  first  costs  becomes  much 
larger.  In  a  remote  region,  with  difficult 
transportation  of  machinery  and  fuel,  it 
may  be  better  to  drive  and  use  a  long  adit 
101 


'  ;;^!T&3E ( BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

rather  than  a  shallow  shaft.  An  adit  will 
transport  more  product  than  will  a  shaft 
of  equal  dimensions. 

An  adit  may  be  driven  to  intercept  a 
shaft  and  to  serve  as  a  sort  of  artificial 
surface,  as  it  were,  and  thus  save  expenses 
in  pumping  and  in  hoisting  up  to  the 
original  collar  of  the  shaft  at  the  surface 
of  the  ground. 

No  matter  how  crooked  an  incline  may 
be,  it  is  possible  to  hoist  ore  in  convey- 
ances known  as  skips,  although  the  hoist- 
ing may  be  necessarily  somewhat  slow. 
These  same  conveyances  are  useful  for 
lowering  and  hoisting  men,  and  the  par- 
ody, "Men  go  down  to  the  mine  in 
skips,"  here  finds  its  significance.  The 
usual  hoisting  conveyances  used  in  shafts 
are  known  as  cages.  They  usually  pro- 
duce less  friction  than  do  incline  skips. 
A  skip  in  an  incline  must  travel  upon  a 
track,  while  a  cage,  somewhat  resem- 
bling a  passenger  elevator,  has  no  wheels, 
but  slides  upon  guides.  However,  an 
incline  skip,  because  of  the  inclination  of 
the  passage,  does  not  exert  the  same 
dead  weight  upon  the  cable  and  hoist- 
102 


MINE  OPENINGS 

ing  engine  and  hence  these  parts  of  the 
equipment  may  be  made  correspondingly 
lighter.  Skips  for  shafts  are  similar  to 
cages  in  their  lack  of  wheels. 

Complete  estimates  of  probable  future 
requirements  should  be  made  before  a 
shaft  is  sunk.  When  it  becomes  neces- 
sary to  enlarge  a  single-compartment 
shaft  to  one  with  two  compartments,  the 
expense  has  been  found  to  exceed  one- 
half  the  original  cost  of  sinking;  while,  to 
convert  a  one-compartment  shaft  into  a 
three-compartment  shaft  costs  fully  three- 
fourths  of  the  original  sinking  expense. 
Approximately  the  same  ratios  of  cost 
will  hold  in  the  case  of  enlarging  inclines. 

Character  of  ore  sometimes  influences 
the  selection  of  the  kind  of  passageway. 
Some  high  grade,  brittle  ores  must  not  be 
dumped  nor  handled  repeatedly,  since 
values  are  lost  in  the  "fines."  Iron  and 
copper  ores  will  not  probably  be  injured 
by  any  amount  of  dumping.  Coal  should 
be  handled  as  few  times  as  possible.  In 
view  of  this  fact,  other  things  being  equal, 
adopt  that  system  that  will  injure  the 
ore  or  coal  the  least. 

103 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  MINING 

As  a  rule,  workmen  are  safer  in  tunnels 
than  in  shafts,  since  there  is  little  danger 
from  objects  falling  any  great  distance. 
Tiny  bits  of  rock  have  been  known  to  kill 
men  in  shafts.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
is  less  liability  of  injury  from  falls  of 
large  rocks  in  shafts  than  in  adits.  Roof 
falls  are  a  very  prolific  source  of  mine 
accidents. 

The  workmen  of  neighboring  mines  will 
often  be  able  to  give  much  valuable  infor- 
mation as  to  the  proper  procedure  in 
opening  a  new  property.  For  instance, 
water  levels,  amounts  and  kinds  of  gases 
that  may  be  expected,  the  nature  of  the 
wall  rocks,  and  other  pertinent  points 
may  be  learned  by  interviewing  the  men 
who  are  employed  in  adjacent  mines. 
Still  better  information  may  be  obtained 
by  personal  visits  to  the  underground 
workings  of  the  nearby  mines.  In  this 
connection,  one  must  not  permit  himself 
to  be  unduly  influenced  by  the  prejudices 
or  hobbies  of  the  neighboring  operators 
or  their  employes  if  there  is  reason  to 
suppose  that  such  notions  are  contrary 
to  good  practice. 

104 


MINE  OPENINGS 

Due  consideration  must  always  be 
given  to  the  selection  of  some  method 
of  opening  up  what  might  be  supposed 
will  never  amount  to  a  great  mine,  so 
that,  should  subsequent  disclosures  exceed 
expectations,  enlargement  of  the  scale 
of  operations  can  be  advantageously 
effected.  Always  bear  in  mind  that  legit- 
imate mining  is  just  as  much  a  commercial 
enterprise  as  is  any  other  kind  of  business. 
The  utmost  concern  for  financial  show- 
ings must  be  constantly  borne  in  mind. 
Select  a  scale  of  operations  consistent 
with  the  known — not  the  hoped-for — 
bodies  of  coal  or  ore;  but  have  a  certain 
feature  of  elasticity  about  the  plans  that 
may  take  care  of  future  increase  in  busi- 
ness if  found  desirable.  Do  not  "over- 
plant."  Never  plant,  at  all,  prematurely. 
It  is  better  to  postpone  the  installation 
of  the  equipment  until  some  specific  facts 
are  available.  Many  companies  have  met 
defeat  in  the  exhaustion  of  capital  through 
the  purchase  and  installation  of  elaborate 
plants  which  were  never  warranted. 

After  a  mine  is  once  opened  and  prepa- 
rations have  all  been  perfected  to  operate 

105 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

upon  a  certain  scale  of  output,  it  is  quite 
essential  that  exploitation  and  production 
be  maintained  without  material  fluctua- 
tions, if  the  greatest  economy  is  to  be 
attained.  Exploitation,  i.e.,  development 
work,  must  be  kept  well  in  advance  of 
actual  mining  operations  to  assure  plenty 
of  working  space  for  the  extraction  of 
the  normal  output. 


XI 
TYPES  OF  ORE  BODIES. 

It  has  been  necessary,  a  number  of 
times  in  this  discussion,  heretofore,  to 
make  mention  of  kinds  of  ore  bodies.  It 
is  well,  at  this  time,  to  get  some  fixed 
ideas  concerning  the  leading  types  of 
bodies  of  minerals  which  are  extracted 
as  ores. 

Because  of  the  laxity  in  type  differen- 
tiation which  has  prevailed  among  miners 
and  writers,  the  same  geologists  who  have 
framed  definitions  of  ore,  have  also  de- 
fined the  various  types  of  ore  bodies.  The 
definitions,  having  been  accepted  by  the 
leading  mining  geologists  and  engineers 
of  the  present  day,  it  is  well  for  us  to  fall 
into  line  and  to  agree  with  the  authorities 
in  such  matters. 

A  vein  is  a  single,  ore-bearing  fissure, 
generally,  though  not  necessarily,  with 
at  least  one  well-defined  wall. 

When  we  run  across  a  tabular- shaped 
deposit  of  ore  that  looks  as  though  it  may 

107 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

have  been  put  into  a  pre-existing  fissure 
or  chasm,  the  chances  are  that  it  is  a 
vein.  But  a  vein  must  not  be  confounded 
with  a  dike.  A  dike  is  a  filling  that  has 
been  injected,  while  molten  or  fluid,  into 
an  open  passageway  or  rupture  across 
rocks,  or  into  an  opening  which  it  created 
for  itself.  A  little  examination  of  the 
material  should  tell,  to  even  the  novice, 
whether  or  not  the  substance  is  of  plu- 
tonic  origin.  The  filling  of  a  vein  is  not 
eruptive,  at  all.  Veins  have  been  filled 
from  circulating  aqueous  solutions,  by 
slow  depositions,  that  have  occupied  very 
long  periods. 

A  vein  may  be  any  thickness,  since  a 
fissure  may  have  been  opened  to  any 
width.  Hence,  a  vein  may  be  as  thin 
as  a  sheet  of  paper,  or  it  may  be  a  hundred 
feet  across.  However,  it  is  true  that  some 
wide  veins  have  resulted  by  a  sort  of  en- 
largement from  original  thin  seams.  Very 
few  of  the  notable  wide  veins  of  the  world 
are  believed  to  have  been  created  by  the 
filling  up  of  chasms  originally  as  wide  as 
the  present  ore  bodies.  But,  in  all  cases 
of  real  veins,  there  were  original  fissures, 

108 


TYPES  OF  ORE  BODIES 

fractures  or  crevices  which  acted  as  chan- 
nels for  circulating  solutions  that  con- 
tained the  materials  which  were  left  to 
make  the  vein  matter. 

A  lode  is  an  assemblage  of  veins  so  closely 
spaced  that  the  ground  between  the  veins 
becomes,  in  places,  ore-bearing,  and  the 
entire  width  of  the  aggregation  becomes 
an  ore  body. 

A  zone  of  sheeted  rocks  like  schist  or 
slate,  if  sufficiently  mineralized  to  warrant 
mining,  would  be  a  lode.  Sometimes,  in 
certain  districts,  the  earth's  crust  has  been 
subjected  to  many  approximately  parallel, 
closely-spaced  fractures,  and  by  the  sub- 
sequent filling  of  these  cracks,  with  the 
accompanying  corrosion  of  the  walls  and 
their  replacement  by  ore,  extraction  of 
the  entire  mass  of  rocks  across  a  consid- 
erable distance  will  be  found  to  yield  a 
profit.  Any  such  body  is  a  lode. 

In  the  Cripple  Creek  District,  the 
ground  is  criss-crossed  in  every  direction 
by  tiny  fissures  which  have  resulted  from 
the  contraction  of  the  country  rock,  just 
as  a  bed  of  mud  is  fissured  in  the  process 
of  drying  up  after  a  rain.  Wherever  these 
100 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

fissures  are  found  in  aggregates  that  are 
closely  spaced  and  in  which  a  majority  of 
the  cracks  have  a  general  trend  so  that 
the  whole  assemblage  can  be  readily 
worked  as  one  mass,  this  whole  body  of 
fractured  rock  may  be  found  worth  min- 
ing and  it  will  then  constitute  a  lode.  It 
may  be  mentioned  here  that  the  so-called 
ore  of  this  district  is  not  really  ore  accord- 
ing to  the  accepted  definition.  The  true 
ore,  the  filling  of  these  innumerable,  tiny 
cracks,  really  constitutes  but  about  five 
per  cent,  of  the  material  that  is  shipped 
as  ore,  but  which  is  principally  the  "coun- 
try rock"  broken  down  with  the  small 
volume  of  ore. 

In  legal  phraseology,  the  word  lode  has 
come  to  include  all  sorts  of  ore  bodies. 
When  the  word  is  thus  used,  in  a  legal 
sense,  it  should  not  be  confused  with  the 
strictly  technical  meaning. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  for  prospectors 
to  dilate  upon  the  fact  that  they  have 
located  "true  fissure  veins."  This  ex- 
pression, formerly  on  the  tongues  of  most 
mining  men  in  districts  possessing  veins 
at  all,  is  now  obsolete  and  hence  should 
no 


TYPES  OF  ORE  BODIES 

be  placed  in  the  discard.  There  can  be 
no  such  thing  as  an  "untrue"  vein  nor  an 
"untrue"  fissure.  Neither  can  there  be 
any  vein  without  a  fissure.  Therefore, 
if  there  is  any  vein,  it  must  be  a  real 
or  true  vein.  Accordingly,  the  verbiage 
is  to  be  discouraged.  The  intention  of 
a  miner,  in  using  this  pet  phrase,  has 
been  to  convey  the  impression  that  his 
vein  extended  downward,  indefinitely; 
there  having  arisen  a  notion  that  some 
veins  are  rather  superficial  and  liable  to 
"peter  out"  at  slight  depths,  while  others 
— the  kind  he  invariably  has  located — 
persist  both  in  size  and  value  to  extreme 
depths. 

There  are  districts  in  which  are  found 
short  fissures,  generally  confined  to  cer- 
tain horizons  in  sedimentary  rocks,  such 
as  the  limestones  of  the  great  Mississippi 
Valley,  from  which  are  mined  lead  and 
zinc  ores.  These  are  called  "gash  veins." 
These  are  always  readily  recognized  and 
there  is  not  the  slightest  excuse  for  con- 
fusing them  with  the  fissures  which  are 
common  to  other  kinds  of  rock  formations. 

A  bed  or  blanket  vein  is  the  term  applied 
111 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

to  any  nearly  flat  deposit  conforming  to 
the  bedding.  Such  a  body  of  ore  must 
be  in  a  sedimentary  series  of  rocks.  Coal 
bodies  are  all  of  this  type.  Many  bodies 
of  iron  ore  are  also  of  this  type. 

A  chimney  is  an  ore  body  which  has  not 
the  tabular  form  of  a  vein  but  is  rudely 
elliptical  in  outline,  horizontally,  and 
with  a  very  considerable  vertical  extent. 
A  stock  is  a  similar  body  but  it  is  of  still 
greater  irregularity  of  boundary. 

These  bodies  are  usually  the  filling  of 
extinct  volcanoes  or  geysers,  and  there- 
fore they  are  presumed  to  extend  to  very 
great  depths.  The  diamond  mines  of 
Kimberly,  Africa,  are  of  this  type  and 
the  ore  is  a  sort  of  hardened  geyserite  or 
mud  in  which  are  enclosed  the  precious 
gems.  In  Custer  County,  Colorado,  the 
ore  body  of  the  Bassick  Mine  is  a  con- 
glomerate of  rounded  boulders  of  all 
sizes  cemented  together,  somewhat  like 
concrete,  by  the  materials  which  really 
carry  the  values.  This  mass  occupies 
an  ancient  volcanic  neck  or  throat  of  a 
geyser,  probably  the  latter.  The  main 
portion  of  the  Cripple  Creek  District  is 
112 


TYPES  OP  ORE  BODIES 

the  crater  of  a  great  prehistoric  volcano. 
It  might  be  called  a  great  chimney,  but 
custom  seems  to  limit  the  use  of  the  word 
chimney  to  a  smaller  body  such  as  might 
be  included  in  a  single  mining  property. 

A  mass  is  a  deposit  whose  irregularity 
of  shape  is  so  great  that  it  cannot  be  rec- 
ognized as  belonging  to  any  of  the  types 
already  mentioned.  Masses  conform  to 
no  rules  as  to  shape  or  size.  They  are 
usually  the  result  of  a  chemical  dissolv- 
ing of  the  original  barren  rocks  with  a 
simultaneous  or  subsequent  substitution 
of  valuable  materials.  There  are  many 
instances  of  ores  that  have  been  deposited, 
molecule  by  molecule,  replacing  equal  vol- 
umes of  the  previous  rock,  much  upon 
the  order  of  the  petrifaction  of  wood. 
Again,  there  are  immense  masses  which 
are  believed  to  have  accumulated  in  caves 
already  dissolved  out  of  the  containing 
rocks. 

While  recent  geological  study  of  the 
districts  in  which  such  ore  bodies  abound 
have  disclosed  numerous  facts  about  their 
occurrence,  there  still  remains  much  con- 
jecture concerning  their  origins,  and  we 

8  113 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

may  still  believe  that  they  do  not  con- 
form to  any  rules  as  to  regularity  or  size. 
The  ore  bodies  of  Leadville  are  of  this 
type,  and  they  may  be  described  by  the 
homely  similes  that  they  are  as  like  and 
as  unlike,  and  their  occurrences  are  about 
as  regular,  as  potatoes  in  a  hill.  The 
potato-tops  give  the  farmer  a  suggestion 
as  to  where  to  dig.  So,  also,  do  certain 
geological  relations  guide  the  miner.  And 
yet  a  shaft  may  be  sunk  hundreds  of  feet 
down  among  masses  and  not  happen  to 
penetrate  a  single  one. 

There  are  numerous  recognized  types 
of  ore  body  not  enumerated  here;  but  it 
is  sufficient  for  the  average  layman  in 
mining  matters  to  understand  these  few 
distinct  types  and  to  believe  that  all 
other  types  are  rarities,  and  are,  as  a  gen- 
eral thing,  but  intermediate  forms  of 
those  defined. 


Shaft  No.  3,  TAMARACK  MINING  COMPANY,  CALUMET, 
MICHIGAN. 


SMELTERY  OF  THE  BALAKLALA  CONSOLIDATED  COPPER  Co. 
CORAM,  CALIFORNIA. 


XII 

THE  QUESTIONS  OF  DEPTH  AND 
GRADES  OF  ORE. 

The  prevailing  belief  of  a  few  years  ago 
that  ore  bodies  always  improve  with  depth 
has  been  discredited.  Not  a  single  min- 
ing geologist  will  longer  maintain  such  a 
notion.  The  evidence  of  many  thousands 
of  mines  has  refuted  this  older  belief  and 
it  has  been  proven  that  quite  the  opposite 
view  is  the  correct  one  concerning  changes 
of  value  with  depth.  Values,  instead  of 
getting  better,  do  actually,  in  the  major- 
ity of  cases,  grow  poorer  as  depth  is  gained. 

President  C.  R.  Van  Hise,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin,  was  among  the 
early  expounders  of  the  newer  theories  to 
account  for  this  fact.  The  writer  heard 
him  state,  years  ago,  before  a  scientific 
gathering  (which,  at  that  time,  was  not 
quite  ready  to  agree  with  him),  that  if  he 
were  given  his  choice,  he  would  much 
prefer  to  own  the  upper  thousand  feet  of 
the  earth's  crust  than  all  the  rest  of  the 

115 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

globe.  In  this  remark,  he  was  referring 
only  to  mineral  values,  of  course. 

This  belief  that  the  best  values  are  to 
be  found  not  far  from  the  surface  has 
since  become  popular,  for  it  is  based  upon 
proven  facts.  It  is  not  claimed  that 
values  are  never  mined  below  an  eleva- 
tion that  is  a  thousand  feet  from  the 
surface.  There  are  many  mines,  and 
great  ones,  too,  that  are  operating  at 
depths  greatly  exceeding  this  distance; 
but  in  these  same  mines  there  will  be 
found  valid  reasons  for  not  applying  the 
general  statement  to  their  particular  cases. 
For  instance,  the  great  copper  mines  of  the 
Keweenaw  Peninsula  are  productive  at 
depths  of  a  mile  or  more  from  the  sur- 
face; but  we  believe  that  here  the  ore  must 
have  been  originally  deposited  at,  or  near, 
the  surface,  that  it  was  then  overlain 
with  rock  strata;  and  subsequently  steeply 
tilted  by  earth  movements  which  carried 
some  of  the  ore  bodies  down  to  the  depths 
where  they  are  now  found. 

The  "reefs"  or  bankets  of  the  Rand 
are  so  termed  because  these  ore  bodies 
were  undoubtedly  ancient  coast  beaches 

116 


DEPTH  AND  GRADES  OF  ORE 

or  sea  placers.  The  gravel,  sand,  and 
gold  particles  were  cemented  together 
into  a  conglomerate,  then  covered  with 
many  later  sedimentaries,  and  finally  the 
continent  of  Africa  was  so  raised  or 
altered  in  some  manner  as  to  bring  these 
gold  deposits  into  their  present  inland 
and  tilted  positions. 

In  veins  or  lodes,  it  is  not  supposed  that 
ore-making  minerals  could  have  been  pre- 
cipitated from  solutions  travelling  either 
upward  or  downward  and  obeying  chem- 
ical laws  if  the  depth  were  sufficient  to 
furnish  great  temperature  or  high  rock 
and  hydrostatic  pressures.  Therefore  min- 
erals which  were  deposited  from  aqueous 
solutions  rising  from  depths,  for  example, 
must  have  retained  their  dissolved  con- 
dition until  they  ascended  to  horizons 
in  which  both  pressure  and  temperature 
were  low  enough  to  permit  the  precipita- 
tion and  crystallization  that  create  ores. 
Contrarily,  descending  solutions  must 
have  given  off  their  contents  before 
reaching  the  deep  zones  of  heat  and  pres- 
sure, or  not  at  all. 

It  is  a  quite  common  phenomenon  to 

117 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

observe  that  the  richest  gold  ore  in  a 
mine  is  found  close  to  the  surface,  if  not 
actually  at  "grass  roots."  The  explana- 
tion is  simple.  The  gold,  being  the  most 
stable  of  the  aggregate  of  minerals  com- 
posing the  original  ore,  has  the  better 
resisted  the  corrosive  attacks  of  atmos- 
pheric agencies  and  has  remained  nearly 
intact,  while  its  associated  minerals  have 
been  dissolved  or  altered  and  carried 
away.  The  same  amount  of  gold  re- 
maining with  a  diminished  quantity  of 
the  worthless,  non-metallic  minerals — the 
"gangue" — inevitably  renders  the  ore 
richer  per  unit  of  weight  (such  as  a  ton), 
although  per  unit  of  volume  the  value 
remains  constant,  or  nearly  so,  so  far  as 
the  gold  is  concerned. 

But  with  other  kinds  of  ore,  as,  for 
example,  copper,  the  best  grades  are 
found,  not  close  to  the  surface  but  some 
two  hundred  or  more  feet  down.  The 
explanation  is  that  the  minerals  of  copper 
are  considerably  more  soluble  than  the 
ordinary  gangues  and  therefore  the  weath- 
ering and  oxidation  that  takes  place  in 
the  upper  horizons  of  ore  bodies  will  dis- 

118 


DEPTH  AND  GRADES  OF  ORE 

solve  out  the  cupriferous  compounds  and 
thus  deplete  the  superficial  ore.  But,  by 
the  flowing  of  the  copper  solutions  to  a 
lower  zone,  there  occur  certain  reactions 
that  reprecipitate  the  salts  of  copper 
upon  compounds  of  the  metal  already 
formed  and  we  have  instances  of  the  phe- 
nomenon known  as  "secondary  enrich- 
ment." 

It  was  this  very  process  that  effected 
the  changes  in  the  character  of  the  ore  in 
the  famous  Anaconda  Mine,  previously 
mentioned  (page  44).  The  locator's  dis- 
covery was  upon  an  outcrop  rich  in 
silver.  Probably  the  original  compounds 
of  the  vein  were  of  both  silver  and  copper. 
The  silver  was  more  stable  against  dis- 
solution than  was  the  copper,  with  the 
result  that  the  base  metal  was  removed 
more  rapidly  and  completely  than  was 
the  precious  metal.  The  upper  portion 
of  the  vein  was  therefore  left  rich  in  silver, 
and  low  in  copper.  But,  as  depth  of  min- 
ing increased,  there  was  found  a  gradual 
diminution  of  the  silver  content  with  a 
simultaneous  increase  in  the  copper.  The 
mines  of  Butte  have  become  known  as 

119 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

copper  mines,  and  the  wonderful  records 
they  have  made  are  ample  testimony  to 
the  fact  that  the  change  in  the  prevailing 
metallic  values  has  not  wrought  serious 
havoc  in  the  mining  industry  of  the 
district. 

Regarding  the  probability  of  veins  per- 
sisting to  great  depths,  there  is  this 
thought  suggested  by  J.  E.  Spurr:  "Ow- 
ing to  the  pressure  exerted  by  gravity,  it 
is  doubtless  more  difficult  for  a  fissure  to 
stay  open  in  depth  than  near  the  surface. 
The  tendency  is  to  press  the  sides  to- 
gether. At  a  certain  depth,  it  is  probably 
the  case  that  the  pressure  and  the  plas- 
ticity resulting  from  this,  together  with 
the  increase  in  heat,  makes  it  impossible 
for  fissures,  fractures  or  any  openings  to 
exist." 

There  are  still  many  persons  who  are 
reluctant  to  let  go  of  the  cherished  no- 
tion about  the  improvement  of  ores 
with  depth.  But  there  is  no  economy 
in  deceiving  one's  self,  and  the  wise  thing 
to  do  is  to  accept  the  truths  as  they 
are  daily  proven.  It  may  be  worth 

while  to   again  refer  to  the   wonderful 
120 


DEPTH  AND  GRADES  OF  ORE 

Camp  Bird  Mine.  This  mine  was  dis- 
covered in  its  true  worth  years  after  it 
had  been  abandoned  by  early  prospectors 
because  it  lacked  showy,  base-metal  min- 
erals. However,  since  its  true  merit 
has  been  recognized,  it  has  maintained 
large  and  remarkably  rich  annual  outputs. 
As  values  were  beginning  to  show  a  ma- 
terial decrease,  about  five  years  ago,  an 
experienced  mining  engineer  of  recognized 
standing  was  engaged  to  give  advice  con- 
cerning the  future  exploitation  of  the 
property.  After  exhaustive  investiga- 
tion of  the  ground,  and  in  the  face  of 
adverse  opinions,  he  recommended  the 
discontinuance  of  further  development 
in  depth.  At  the  same  time,  however, 
he  advised  the  exploitation  of  the  ground 
laterally  or  along  the  strike  of  the  very 
persistent  vein.  His  advice  was  followed 
and  the  company's  stockholders  had 
reason  to  be  advocates  of  the  new  theory; 
for  a  very  reasonable  amount  of  horizon- 
tal development  work  opened  up  vast 
stores  of  rich  gold  ore. 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  disquiet- 
ing feature  that  seems  to  apply  to  mining, 
121 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

there  is  comfort  to  be  found  in  the  con- 
sideration of  the  exceptional  cases.  Every 
man  may  hope  that  when  he  locates  a 
new  mine  he  is  taking  possession  of  a 
property  that  will  have  as  extensive  ore 
bodies  as  those  that  have  been  proven  to 
exist  in  the  lead-silver  mines  of  Laurium, 
Greece,  the  quicksilver  mines  of  Spain, 
or  the  copper  and  tin  mines  of  Cornwall. 
These  mines  are  in  lodes  which  have 
persisted  and  have  been  mineralized  to 
comparatively  great  depths,  so  that  their 
bottoms  have  not  been  reached. 

There  is  a  modern  idea  that  has  taken 
root  in  the  minds  of  mining  men  of  the 
last  generation  to  the  effect  that  the  mines 
with  rich  ore  are  not  necessarily  the  ones 
with  big  profits.  There  are  many  men 
looking  for  investments  in  mines  whose 
contents  are  of  low  grade  but  in  large 
bodies  readily  worked.  If  a  mine  with 
rich  ore  can  be  found  and  the  ore  abounds 
in  such  liberal  amounts  as  to  warrant 
the  inauguration  of  a  company  with  the 
essential  working  equipment,  such  a  prop- 
osition will  naturally  not  be  turned  down. 
However,  the  faith  of  some  men  is  placed 
122 


DEPTH  AND  GRADES  OF  ORE 

in  those  mines  that  may  be  operated 
upon  very  large  scales  for  long  periods 
even  if  the  profit  per  ton  be  very  small. 
With  a  large  plant,  the  unit  of  expense, 
i.e.,  the  cost  of  mining  per  ton,  is  less 
than  with  a  small  mine.  With  the  assur- 
ance of  regular  outputs  of  ore  of  a  reason- 
ably uniform  grade,  the  milling  equip- 
ment can  be  planned  to  handle  a  mine's 
product  to  the  greatest  advantage.  The 
Alaska-Treadwell  Mine,  on  Douglas 
Island,  is  an  instance  of  a  splendid 
property  that  has  been  continuously 
operated  for  about  a  third  of  a  century. 
The  ore  is  low  grade  in  gold  but  immense 
dividends  have  been  declared  because 
the  ore  body,  a  tremendous  mass  of  erup- 
tive rock,  has  lain  in  such  a  position 
that  the  owners-  found  it  possible  to 
excavate  the  stuff,  to  a  great  extent,  by 
open-pit  methods,  although  not  by  using 
steam  shovels.  The  ore  is  treated  in  a 
vast  mill  contiguous  to  the  mine. 

The  Homestake,  another  gold  mine, 
has  an  ore  body  quite  dissimilar  geologi- 
cally from,  but  of  dimensions  approximat- 
ing those  of,  the  Treadwell.  It  is  a  great 

123 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

body  of  mineralized,  crushed  shales,  stand- 
ing steeply  in  the  shape  of  a  lode  and 
carrying  about  $3.75  per  ton.  It  has 
been  followed  down  considerably  over 
one  thousand  feet  and  although  the  grade 
has  dropped  somewhat  with  depth,  there 
are  known  to  still  be  millions  of  tons  in 
reserve.  According  to  estimates,  the 
mine  has  enough  positive  ore  in  reserve 
to  keep  the  mill  running  at  the  rate  of 
4,000  tons  per  day  for  several  years  even 
if  no  more  ore  were  to  be  opened  up. 
This  ore  nets  but  53  cents  per  ton  above 
all  mining  and  milling  expenses;  but  a 
little  arithmetic  will  show  that  this  mine 
is  worth  twice  as  much  as  the  mine  that 
is  producing,  with  more  or  less  regularity, 
an  average  daily  output  of,  say,  forty 
tons  of  high  grade  ore  upon  which  there 
is  a  net  gain  of  $25  per  ton,  a  figure  that 
is  rather  high  for  the  average  of  so-called 
"high  grade"  mines. 

We  must,  therefore,  decide  that  it  is 
always  wise  to  think  twice  before  con- 
demning a  mine  because  its  grade  of 
product  is  low.  It  is  only  recently  and 
by  virtue  of  marked  improvements  in 

124 


DEPTH  AND  GRADES  OF  ORE 

metallurgical  processes  that  many  bodies 
of  mineral  have  become  "ore."  Hence 
it  is  but  natural  that  many  of  the  older 
miners  fail  to  grasp  the  possibilities  that 
lie  in  such  deposits. 

What  is  the  line  of  value  separating  a 
low  grade  from  a  high  grade  of  precious 
metal  ore?  There  is  no  uniform  practice 
along  this  line.  One  will  notice  that  ores 
are  nowadays  spoken  of  as  high  grade 
that,  before  the  practice  of  mining  these 
described  meagre  deposits,  were  reckoned 
as  low  grade.  This  fact  is  due  to  two 
reasons,  viz.,  the  cheapening  of  metal- 
lurgical operations,  and  the  greater  re- 
spect that  is  entertained  for  ores  of  low 
metallic  content.  The  Esperanza  Mine, 
in  Mexico,  is  called  a  high-grade  gold 
mine.  Its  ore  has  averaged  about  $33 
per  ton  and  the  profit  therefrom  about 
$19.  The  Oroya-Brownhill  Mine,  in 
western  Australia,  has  had  ore  that  car- 
ried a  value  of  about  $22  per  ton  and 
from  it  a  profit  of  about  $15  per  ton  was 
made.  In  the  Cripple  Creek  District, 
ores  that  run  above  $30  per  ton  are  con- 
sidered high  grade.  This  means  that 

125 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

the  average  rich  ore  shipments  of  the 
district  have  a  gold  content  of  about  1^ 
ounces  per  ton.  The  expenses  of  min- 
ing, freight,  and  treatment  will  prob- 
ably total  close  to  one-half  the  gross 
value,  or  about  $15  per  ton. 

When  one  speaks  of  $30  or  $40  ore  as 
rich  or  high  grade,  it  is  not  to  be  inferred 
that  there  is  no  ore  in  the  shipments 
which  is  not  worth  a  great  deal  more  than 
this  amount  per  ton.  Such  lots  of  ore 
will,  no  doubt,  contain  a  great  many 
chunks  that  would  assay  many  times  the 
average  value.  Such  selected  materials 
would  not,  however,  be  samples;  they 
would  be  what  are  called  "specimens." 
The  specimen  has  it  place  in  mine  eco- 
nomic discussions  because  it  furnishes 
the  basis  of  operations  for  the  ubiqui- 
tous "high  grader"  with  which  nearly 
every  new  and  rich  mining  camp  must 
contend. 

Some  writers  claim  that  the  high  grader 
is  a  product  of  modern  conditions;  but 
we  find  that  he  has  existed  for  such  a  long 
time  that  he  was  given  mention  by  the 
Scotch  historian  and  scientist  Andrew 

126 


DEPTH  AND  GRADES  OF  ORE 

Ure,  who  wrote  of  the  precautions  that 
were  exercised  in  working  the  graphite 
mines  of  England,  a  century  ago,  to  pre- 
vent the  pilfering  of  even  this  compara- 
tively low-grade  material.  Even  the 
ignorant  African  natives  of  today  can- 
not be  trusted  to  wear  clothing  while 
working  in  the  diamond  mines.  No, 
the  cause  of  high  grading  is  the  innate 
greed  of  human  beings  and  it  has  ex- 
isted from  prehistoric  time  and  among 
all  peoples. 

In  this  discussion  as  to  grades  of  ore, 
the  question  may  arise  as  to  what  might 
be  reasonably  considered  the  most  attrac- 
tive kind  of  a  mining  proposition.  This 
is  too  knotty  a  query  to  be  answered  in  a 
few  words.  There  are  so  many  different 
phases  that  must  be  given  due  weight. 
Every  mine  is  a  problem  in  itself.  The 
Minnesota  mines  afford  the  best  examples 
of  profitable  iron  mining.  Under  the 
classification  of  underground,  tabular  de- 
posits such  as  veins  or  lodes,  no  matter 
in  what  metals  their  values  are  found, 
Mr.  T.  A.  Rickard  believes  that  the  ideal 
mine  would  be  one  carrying  ore  worth 

127 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

$10  per  ton,  in  a  body  five  feet  thick,  with 
costs  not  exceeding  $5  per  ton,  and  so 
mined  as  to  keep  one  million  tons  con- 
tinually in  reserve.  According  to  these 
restrictions,  he  thinks  the  Robinson  Mine, 
of  Johannesburg,  will  about  fill  the  bill  as 
an  ideal  gold  mine.  It  has  a  deposit  of 
about  the  right  thickness  to  avoid  exces- 
sive timbering  expense  and  this  ore  body 
is  in  such  a  vast,  continuous  sheet  that 
its  superintendent  can  depend  upon  main- 
taining a  systematic  development  that 
will  assure  a  constant  supply  of  ore  to  the 
immense  mill  for  ten  or  twelve  years  in 
advance.  This  same  ore  averages  about 
fourteen  pennyweights  (approximately 
$14)  per  ton  and  upon  this  there  is  as- 
sured a  profit  of  over  five  dollars  per  ton. 


XIII 

VALUATION  OF  MINING 
PROPERTY. 

Whenever  a  piece  of  mining  property 
is  to  change  hands,  it  is  the  proper  pro- 
cedure to  employ  an  expert  engineer  to 
investigate  the  ground  and  the  improve- 
ments and  so  arrive  at  some  estimate 
concerning  its  intrinsic  value.  Nobody 
is  infallible  and  it  is  a  trite  saying  that 
"nobody  can  see  into  a  mine  farther  than 
the  last  drill  hole."  But  there  is  a  great 
difference  in  the  reliabilities  of  reports 
made  by  trained  and  by  untrained  men. 
A  self-styled  "expert"  of  the  type  which 
is  so  abundant  in  every  new  mining  centre 
and  about  cities  frequented  by  mining 
investors  will  probably  not  be  able  to 
comprehend  anything  beyond  his  vision; 
but  the  mining  geologist  and  engineer — 
the  man  who  has  devoted  the  better  part 
of  his  life  to  study  and  experience  along 
these  lines — will  be  able  to  reach  con- 
clusions upon  which  much  reliance  may 

9  129 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

be  placed.  This  fact  has  come  to  be 
recognized  by  the  men  who  exercise  busi- 
ness judgment  in  their  mining  invest- 
ments. 

The  sampling  of  mines  has  been  studied 
and  improved  upon  by  succeeding  en- 
gineers, until  one  may  say  that  it  is  con- 
ducted along  strictly  scientific  lines.  The 
old  method  of  taking  a  sample  of  a  mine 
by  scratching  ore  from  the  sides  of  a 
shaft  from  top  to  bottom  and  letting  the 
collected  material  at  the  bottom  repre- 
sent a  fair  average  of  the  ore  body,  has 
been  relegated  to  its  proper  place  in  the 
evolution  of  mine  valuation. 

Without  entering  into  a  description  of 
the  methods  now  employed  by  the  best 
examiners  of  mines,  let  it  be  said  that 
every  scientific  precaution  is  taken  to 
obtain  representative  portions  of  the  ore 
bodies,  at  such  intervals  as  seem  best  in 
each  particular  case;  that  measurements 
and  assays  are  made  for  each  and  every 
sample  taken  and  not  for  the  aggregate 
of  all  the  samples;  that  no  opportunity  is 
allowed  unscrupulous  persons  to  vitiate 
results  in  any  manner;  that  a  professional 

130 


VALUATION  OF  MINING  PROPERTY 

engineer  will  not  hold  nor  acquire,  in  any 
way,  an  interest  in  any  proposition  which 
he  examines;  and  that  the  report  of  a 
reputable  engineer  is  equally  acceptable 
to  the  seller  and  to  the  purchaser,  no 
matter  for  whom  the  work  is  done. 

Much  discussion  has  prevailed  as  to 
the  best  means  of  estimating  the  amount 
and  the  value  of  ore  in  unbroken  re- 
serves. Associated  with  these  beneficial 
disputes,  there  has  been  a  further  con- 
troversy as  to  the  correct  classification 
for  reserves  of  unbroken  ore.  It  is  now 
conceded  among  mining  men  and  engi- 
neers to  be  improper  to  longer  make  use 
of  the  meaningless  but  tongue-worn  ex- 
pression "ore  in  sight"  as  signifying  any 
known  or  unknown  volumes  of  ore  in  the 
ground.  The  only  ore  in  sight  is  that 
which  has  been  hoisted  or  which  has  been 
broken  and  stored  underground.  Well- 
known  engineers  have  proposed  the  fol- 
lowing expressions: 

To  denote  the  contents  of  ore  bodies 
which  have  been  exposed  on  four  sides, 
we  may  say  ore  blocked  out,  positive  ore  or 
ore  developed;  for  bodies  exposed  upon 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

three  sides,  it  is  considered  correct  to 
describe  the  contents  as  ore  partly  blocked; 
for  such  bodies  as  are  proved  upon  two 
sides  only,  the  terms  ore  faces,  ore  develop- 
ing or  probable  ore  are  appropriate;  while 
in  speaking  of  all  ore  that  may  be  expected 
or  suspected,  but  which  is  beyond  the  last 
exposures,  we  may  use  the  expressions 
ore  expectant  and  possible  ore. 

When  it  comes  to  the  question  of  plac- 
ing a  value  upon  an  undeveloped  property 
— one  in  which  there  is  little,  or  no,  de- 
velopment work  or  exploitation — it  takes 
more  than  the  ability  of  the  common 
"expert"  of  the  curbstone  variety  to 
arrive  at  any  dependable  figures.  With- 
out any  exposures,  except  those  that  may 
have  been  produced  by  Nature,  and  per- 
haps with  no  guidance  from  facts  that 
might  be  obtainable  were  there  adjoin- 
ing mines,  one  might  suppose  that  the 
whole  matter  would  resolve  itself  into 
mysticism.  Right  here  is  where  the 
trained  man  best  shows  his  ability. 

The  greatest  error  of  the  usual  investor 
in  mining  schemes  is  to  rely  upon  either 
no  report  at  all  or  upon  a  worthless  one 

132 


VALUATION  OF  MINING  PROPERTY 

furnished  by  an  impostor.  In  no  sort  of 
a  mining  proposition  is  a  reliable  report 
so  essential  as  when  one  is  contemplating 
the  purchase  of  a  "prospect'9  Successful 
engineers,  whose  predictions  concerning 
such  properties  have  come  true,  are  some- 
times complimented  (?)  by  being  accused 
of  possessing  intuition  or  prophetic  vision. 
Call  this  ability  what  we  will,  we  must 
admit  that  education  and  training  give 
certain  qualifications  that  will  enable  a 
man  to  arrive  at  conclusions  which,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  will  be  found  to  wear. 


XIV 
THE  MINE  PROMOTER. 

With  the  thought  that  has  justly  been 
given  to  the  place  occupied  (or  that  should 
be  occupied)  in  the  world's  financial  and 
economic  affairs  by  legitimate  mining, 
there  has  developed  a  well-founded  stigma 
upon  the  operations  of  a  class  of  persons 
who  have  styled  themselves  by  what  was 
formerly  considered  a  worthy  title,  that 
of  "promoters."  Since  men  have  found 
that  it  is  as  possible  to  go  into  a  mining 
deal  with  the  same  chances  for  success  as 
attach  to  any  other  line  of  investment; 
since  it  has  been  proved  that  real,  worthy 
mining  property  does  not  require  the 
exertions  of  many  middlemen  to  obtain 
capital  for  its  development;  and  since  it 
has  usually  turned  out  that  these  "pro- 
moters" have  handed  the  hot  end  of 
deals  to  their  investors,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  that  some  sort  of  a  brand  would 
attach  itself  to  the  men  who  are  not  in 
the  business  to  benefit  the  industry  of 

134 


THE  MINE  PROMOTER 

mining  in  the  least,  but  really  for  the 
selfish  gains  which  they  can  pocket  at 
the  expense  of  the  industry. 

These  men  are  legion.  The  mails  are 
laden  with  their  seductive  letters  and 
"literature."  Brokerage  firms  are  num- 
bered among  these  leeches  on  legitimate 
mining.  Charlatans  appear  almost  daily 
upon  mining  scenes.  The  men  who  en- 
gage in  these  deplorable  practices  are 
not  from  any  one  walk  in  life :  they  spring 
up  from  various  branches  of  our  social 
structure.  The  general  public  has  learned 
that  a  very  prominent  Boston  magnate 
will  not  scruple  to  promote  a  mining 
property  even  though  it  lacks  the  merit 
essential  in  attracting  the  conservative 
capitalist.  Thousands  of  people  of  small 
means  throughout  the  United  States  and 
Canada  have  been  recipients  of  nicely 
worded  and  familiarly-addressed  letters 
signed  by  the  son  of  a  famous  American 
author.  This  son,  himself  a  writer  of 
some  repute,  presumed  to  speak  to  his 
"friends"  concerning  a  mining  property 
which  he  promoted  and  into  which  he 
was  glad  to  allow  them  to  get  with  him 

135 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

"  on  the  ground  floor."  He  frankly  stated 
that  he  was  not  offering  such  privileges  to 
the  big  capitalists.  He  inwardly  knew 
that  such  men  do  not  require  holdings  in 
the  Cobalt  or  any  other  region.  Through 
the  splendid  work^carried  on  by  the  Gov- 
ernment postal  authorities  many  of  these 
frauds  have  been  exposed  and  the  perpe- 
trators brought  to  justice.  In  January, 
1912,  the  above-mentioned  author,  to- 
gether with  a  number  of  his  ilk,  were 
brought  before  the  Federal  Grand  Jury, 
and  found  guilty. 

It  is  not  the  men  of  great  capital  who 
are  induced,  as  a  rule,  into  the  deals  of 
the  "promoter."  It  is  usually  the  com- 
mon people,  the  persons  of  small  means 
who  have  saved  up  a  little  spare  money 
from  which  they  hope  to  realize  compe- 
tencies for  rainy  days — a  class  of  beings 
inexperienced  in  investments — who  be- 
come the  dupes  of  the  promoter. 

There  have  been  notable  exceptions  to 
the  statement  that  capitalists  do  not  yield 
to  the  seductions  of  these  men,  but  recur- 
rences are  liable  to  be  few.  The  great  busi- 
ness man  is  fortified  by  experience  against 

136 


THE  MINE  PROMOTER 

forms  of  treachery  and  he  is,  therefore,  not 
so  susceptible  to  the  allurements  of  any 
"promotion,"  be  it  mining  or  otherwise. 

If  one  investigates  these  advertised 
mining  "promotions,"  he  will  often  find 
that  the  money  paid  in  by  the  small  in- 
vestors purchases  a  very  small  portion 
only  of  the  capitalization.  The  men  who 
conceived  the  scheme  of  "promoting"  a 
concern  have  carefully  arranged  to  hold 
a  majority  of  the  stock,  so  that  should 
there,  by  any  chance,  prove  to  be  a  mine, 
they  are  the  ones  who  will  reap  the  great- 
est benefits.  Further,  it  often  transpires 
that  the  contributions  of  cash  that  pur- 
chase the  small  interests  do  not  perform 
the  function  of  development  for  which 
the  stock  was  ostensibly  put  upon  the 
market.  Perhaps  somebody  has  a  desire 
to  get  rich  quickly.  The  operations  of 
such  frauds  are  so  obscured  and  so  com- 
plex to  the  average  individual  that  suffi- 
cient evidence  can  seldom  be  procured 
to  prove  any  violation  of  law. 

A  witty  newspaper  paragrapher  once 
remarked  that  out  in  Nevada  the  old 
adage  "Death  loves  a  shining  mark" 

137 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

was  changed  to  "Death  loves  a  mining 
shark."  It  would  seem,  however,  that  if 
Death  were  to  love  the  person  bearing  the 
odious,  well-understood  title  of  "shark" 
enough  to  claim  him  early,  the  business 
of  mining  would  be  materially  benefited. 
The  post-office  officials  of  the  United 
States  are  to  be  commended  for  their 
efforts  at  curbing  the  despicable  opera- 
tions of  these  fakirs.  Occasionally  the 
papers  come  out  with  the  news  that  a 
firm's  offices  have  been  raided  and  their 
business  stopped.  These  news  items  fall 
as  awakeners  upon  the  hundreds  of  gul- 
lible, middle-class  persons  all  over  the 
country  who  are  known  to  actually  force 
their  cash  remittances  upon  these  fraud- 
ulent operators,  much  upon  the  plan  of  a 
department  store's  supposed  bargain  sale. 
In  spite  of  the  "bad  name"  that  has 
been  attached  to  the  persons  engaged  in 
starting  up  enterprises,  there  is  a  real 
need  for  more  activity  in  the  matter  of 
inaugurating  real,  legitimate  mining  en- 
terprises. Persons  who  devote  their  brains 
and  energies  in  the  direction  of  furthering 
worthy  mining  propositions  do  really 

138 


THE  MINE  PROMOTER 

"promote"  the  interests  of  such  compa- 
nies. What  shall  such  persons  be  called 
if  not  "promoters"?  There  does  not 
seem  to  be  any  other  word  that  expresses 
the  occupation  of  such  persons.  The 
real  solution  of  this  dilemma  in  which 
the  honest  men  engaged  in  such  work  find 
themselves  placed  is  to  denounce,  force- 
fully, the  charlatan  as  being  not  a  real  pro- 
moter but  a  gross  misrepresentation  of  one. 
Let  us,  therefore,  remove  the  odium 
from  this  title  and  give  our  approbation 
to  those  persons  who  are  earnestly  en- 
deavoring, by  honest  means,  to  place 
mining  enterprises  upon  strictly  business- 
like footings.  The  mining  industry  needs 
promotion  and  promoters. 


XV 

INCORPORATION  AND  CAPITALI- 
ZATION. 

Let  us  consider  the  legitimate  financing 
of  a  new  or  a  reorganized,  worthy,  mining 
proposition.  It  is  the  universal  custom  to 
own  and  work  a  mine  under  the  laws  that 
govern  a  corporation  and,  for  this  reason, 
the  mining  man  of  the  day  is  familiar  with 
the  practices  of  incorporating. 

It  is  something  of  a  question  at  the 
start  to  decide  what  is  a  fair  price  to  fix 
upon  a  property  as  a  whole — that  is,  to 
decide  what  the  capitalization  should  be. 
There  is  no  rule  to  be  followed  in  this 
matter.  Some  organizers  will  decide  to 
capitalize  at  what  is  expected  will  be  the 
value  of  the  property  after  some  time. 
Other  men  will  stick  to  the  idea  that  it  is 
the  proper  thing  to  capitalize  for  what 
the  property  will  invoice  at  the  time. 
The  higher  the  capital  stock,  the  greater 
number  of  shares  there  are  for  sale,  usu- 
ally. With  a  conservative  capitalization, 

140 


INCORPORATION— CAPITALIZATION 

there  may  be  fewer  shares  for  sale,  but 
each  share  is  worth  correspondingly  more 
and  the  chances  are  much  better  for  an 
advance  in  the  price  per  share  whenever 
the  mine  becomes  productive.  There  are 
investors  who  will  carefully  investigate 
this  feature  and  will  shun  any  mining 
stock  which  has  any  appearance  of  over- 
capitalization. It  would  be  well  if  all 
investors  were  to  follow  this  precaution. 
But  what  about  the  price  at  which  to 
capitalize  a  prospect?  By  a  prospect  we 
here  mean  a  property  that  has  been  fav- 
orably reported  upon  as  worthy  of  devel- 
opment but  in  which,  up  to  date,  there  is 
little,  if  any,  showing  of  values  or  re- 
serves. The  engineer's  report  has  recom- 
mended the  property  as  containing  the 
possibilities  of  a  mine.  How  much  is  it 
worth?  Can  he  or  can  anybody  even 
roughly  estimate  the  sum?  An  engineer 
frequently  does  fix  the  sale-purchase  price 
of  a  property,  but  it  is  not  so  usual  for  him 
to  decide  upon  a  valuation  for  capitaliza- 
tion. A  very  good  guess  may  be  made, 
perhaps,  if  there  are  similar  and  neighbor- 
ing properties  which  have  been  developed. 

141 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

Assuming  a  prospect  that  has  been 
reliably  reported  to  the  owners  as  pos- 
sessing the  earmarks  of  a  mine  and  as 
warranting  expenditures  for  exploitation, 
upon  what  basis  should  a  company  be 
capitalized?  If  the  owners  of  the  prop- 
erty have  capital,  the  chances  are  that 
they  will  not  care  to  share  their  holdings 
with  other  parties.  But  very  frequently 
worthy  "prospects"  are  held  by  men  of 
no  means,  and  in  order  to  develop  their 
mines  the  owners  feel  the  necessity  of 
cooperation  with  parties  who  can  furnish 
working  funds.  In  every  such  instance, 
there  will  arise  this  debate  as  to  the  proper 
basis  of  capitalization. 

There  is  no  human  means  of  arriving 
at  a  close  valuation  of  any  prospect,  so 
it  becomes  a  matter  of  pure  judgment  as 
to  future  probabilities  and  the  possibility 
of  placing  the  stock  at  the  most  advanta- 
geous price.  A  company  will,  therefore, 
be  stocked  for  some  round  number  of 
shares,  say  100,000,  upon  which  some 
empirical  par  valuation,  say  $1,  is  placed 
per  share.  This  is  not  to  be  understood 
as  stating  nor  assuming  that  the  property 

142 


INCORPORATION— CAPITALIZATION 

has  a  present  valuation  equalling  the  par 
of  the  entire  capitalization.  Who  would 
assert  that  any  mere  prospect  ever  had 
such  a  value  as  $100,000?  No,  it  is  not 
the  intention  of  the  organizers  to  claim 
that  the  ground  is  worth  the  par  valua- 
tion; but  some  start  must  be  made  and 
so,  in  the  absence  of  something  precise, 
round  numbers  are  made  to  do  service. 

Stock  is  then  offered  at  figures  much 
below  the  par  valuation  and  in  such 
quantities  as  will  maintain  sufficient  cap- 
ital in  the  treasury  of  the  new  concern  to 
get  the  property's  exploitation  under  way 
and  to  so  sustain  it  as  to  make  the  pros- 
pect grow  into  a  mine. 

If  shares  are  offered  at  10  cents,  it 
does  not  mean  that  a  prospect  is  worth 
even  that  valuation.  It  does  mean  (we 
are  considering  now  only  the  operations 
of  honest  concerns)  that  the  men  who  are 
managing  affairs  believe  that  the  sale  of  so 
many  shares  at  ten  cents  each  will  furnish 
adequate  means  for  the  development  and 
equipment  of  the  mine.  Therefore,  there 
is  a  prospective  valuation  placed  upon  all 
such  enterprises. 

143 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

Is  an  investment  in  such  a  company  to 
be  considered  as  gambling?  If  there  have 
been  sound  assurances  from  reliable  ex- 
aminers concerning  the  likelihood  of  the 
ground  carrying  the  essentials  of  a  mine 
and  the  only  uncertain  element  is  the 
ultimate  magnitude  of  the  mine,  then 
we  might  say  that  the  investment  is  not 
a  gamble  at  all,  since  there  is  no  chance 
to  lose.  The  purchase  of  such  stock  is  a 
very  sane  investment  and  there  is  no 
telling  what  the  returns  may  reach. 

When  incorporating  a  new  company, 
it  has  become  the  fashion  for  the  owners 
of  the  ground  to  exchange  their  titles 
for  certain  specified  fractional  interests 
in  the  company.  This  is  effected  usually 
by  going  through  the  formality  of  hav- 
ing the  owners  sell  their  holdings  out- 
right for  the  entire  issue  of  the  capital 
stock.  Then,  according  to  prearranged 
agreements,  these  owners  donate  to  the 
treasury  of  the  company  a  portion  of 
this  capital  stock  to  be  henceforth  termed 
"treasury  stock."  The  first  step  makes 
the  capital  stock  "fully  paid  for,"  since 
it  has  been  accepted  in  full  payment  for 

144 


INCORPORATION— CAPITALIZATION 

the  property.  The  second  step  supplies 
the  company  with  the  necessary  means 
for  raising  funds  to  develop. 

There  can  be  no  reasonable  objection 
to  this  practice.  But  there  is  much  crit- 
icism of  the  usual  apportionment  of  the 
owners'  and  the  treasury  stock.  It  is 
agreed  that  the  incorporators  are,  as  a 
rule,  greedy  in  this  respect,  since  they 
generally  issue  more  than  50  per  cent, 
(and  frequently  60  per  cent.)  of  the  cap- 
ital stock  to  themselves  and  expect  to 
float  the  project  to  success  upon  the 
money  derivable  from  the  sale  of  the 
balance  or  treasury  stock. 

Is  a  mere  prospect,  even  under  the 
best  natural  conditions,  plus  the  effort 
incidental  to  the  organization  of  a  min- 
ing company,  worth  one-half  or  more  of 
a  producing  mine?  During  an  extended 
experience  in  the  business  of  converting 
discoveries  into  patented  claims  and  pros- 
pects into  mines,  the  writer  has  found 
that  there  is  never  an  owner  who  is  willing 
to  sell  a  developed  mine  for  twice  the  price 
he  had  set  upon  the  original  prospect.  The 
valuation  of  his  holdings  goes  up  by 

10  145 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

greater  multiples  than  mere  doubling  or 
even  trebling  and  it  is  a  rare  thing  to 
find  a  man  willing  to  sell  out  a  proved 
mine  at  less  than  ten  times  the  prevailing 
valuation  that  would  have  been  placed 
upon  the  same  piece  of  property  before 
its  development. 

Hence,  there  is  no  propriety  in  the  act 
of  self -appropriating  half  the  capital  stock 
by  the  organizers.  Investors  should  be 
wary  about  taking  interests  in  companies 
which  have  been  so  organized.  If  an 
owner  believes  that  a  mine  is  worth  ten 
times  as  much  as  a  prospect,  let  him  be 
consistent  and  offer  his  undeveloped  prop- 
erty for  a  tithe  of  the  capital  stock  in  the 
anticipated  mine.  If  he  has  a  worthy 
piece  of  ground,  he  will  reap  the  same 
benefits  as  the  holders  of  the  stock  who 
place  their  cash  against  his  title  to  a  tract 
of  virgin  territory.  If  he  will  not  thus  act 
fairly,  it  indicates  either  a  questionable 
piece  of  property  or  an  avidity  undesir- 
able in  a  partner.  It  is  accordingly  advis- 
able to  shun  offerings  in  such  concerns. 

Another  matter  to  be  considered  here 
is  that  of  overloading  a  fairly  good  min- 

146 


INCORPORATION— CAPITALIZATION 

ing  enterprise  with  so  much  capital  in- 
vestment that  the  property  cannot  be 
made  to  pay  proper  dividends  and  fair 
interest  on  the  capital.  Many  worthy, 
though  perhaps  small,  mining  concerns 
have  made  failures  through  a  disregard 
for  this  economic  feature.  The  proper 
adjustment  of  this  matter  is  a  serious 
thing  and  it  should  not  be  passed  over 
lightly.  Investors  should  look  into  this 
phase  of  mining  thoroughly. 


XVI 
MINING   INVESTMENTS. 

One  should  be  able  to  establish,  in  his 
mind,  a  distinction  between  the  value  of 
investments  in  operating  mines  and  in 
prospective  mines;  and  he  should  likewise 
be  competent  to  fix  some  difference  in 
his  attitude  when  purchasing  the  stocks 
in  these  dissimilar  projects.  One  should 
invest  in  an  established  mine  with  the 
same  business  precautions  that  would 
guide  him  in  buying  an  interest  in  a  mer- 
cantile establishment. 

It  is  possible  to  obtain,  through  compe- 
tent engineers,  the  approximate  present 
valuation  and  the  probable  life  of  any 
mine  and  thus  to  arrive  at  conservative 
figures  that  will  govern  one's  investments. 
But,  when  debating  the  purchase  of  stock 
in  a  prospect,  a  man  should  learn  all  the 
available  facts  concerning  the  geology 
and  the  organizers  and  should  then  decide, 
in  his  own  way,  whether  he  cares  to 
make  the  purchase.  Even  the  prospects 

148 


MINING  INVESTMENTS 

offering  the  finest  inducements  have  been 
known  to  disappoint,  just  as  some  less 
promising  prospects  have  occasionally 
exceeded  expectations. 

So,  while  there  are  certain  safeguards  to 
investments,  there  should  also  be  accepted 
the  uncertainties  which  must  accompany 
the  placing  of  faith  in  unseen  things. 

The  same  general  rules  for  business 
success  will  attend  both  commercial  and 
mining  enterprises.  Any  incorporation 
must  be  handled  according  to  recognized, 
successful  methods,  no  matter  what  its 
scope  or  activity.  In  most  lines  of  busi- 
ness, there  is  a  likelihood  of  growth  with 
longevity,  there  being  no  reason  to  limit 
the  life  of  the  usual  mercantile  business. 
With  advancing  years,  a  manufacturing 
company,  for  instance,  with  good  manage- 
ment, will  establish  a  reputation  and  will 
gradually  increase  its  business  and  its 
stock  in  trade.  But  with  a  mine,  the 
business  is  one  which  is  most  successful 
only  when  actually  depleting  the  assets 
at  the  most  rapid  rate.  With  some  kinds 
of  mines  such  as  coal,  placer,  iron  or  the 
"  reef  "  gold  mines  of  the  Rand,  the  life  can 

149 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

be  very  accurately  forecast  and  all  activi- 
ties may  be  planned  for  specified  periods. 
In  some  kinds  of  mining  ground — as 
for  instance,  the  irregular  masses  of  Lead- 
ville  or  the  crooked  and  uncertain  veins 
of  Tonopah — there  can  be  no  predictions 
that  will  reliably  or  even  approximately 
decide  the  probable  life  of  the  mining 
activities  of  any  company.  The  dura- 
tion of  mines  of  this  second  class  is  wholly 
problematical.  A  few  years  ago,  there 
was  much  discussion  of  this  subject  and 
one  writer,  who  had  collected  statistics 
over  an  extended  period  and  covering 
various  kinds  of  mines,  arrived  at  the 
conclusion  that  the  average  life  of  a  mine 
is  about  eleven  years.  J.  P.  Wallace,  in 
his  work,  Ore  Deposits  for  the  Practical 
Miner,  in  discussing  this  point  says,  "The 
average  mine,  if  continuously  worked, 
seldom  lasts  longer  than  three  to  five 
years.  A  mine  is  valuable  not  for  what 
it  has  produced,  but  for  what  it  is  capable 
of  producing."  This  opinion  cannot  be 
borne  out  by  facts,  for  the  brevity  he 
ascribes  to  the  average  mine  is  altogether 
unreasonable  and  his  statement  is  pessi- 

150 


MINING  INVESTMENTS 

mistic.  The  cases  of  mines  which  have 
petered  out  in  three  or  five  years  are 
exceptionally  few.  It  must  be  that  the 
experiences  of  this  author  have  been  in 
"pockety"  districts,  for  he  could  not 
have  lived  in  any  of  the  worthy  mining 
camps  of  the  world  very  long  and  have 
come  away  with  any  such  notion. 

To  take  care  of  this  intrinsic  feature  of 
mining,  and  to  place  propositions  fairly 
before  the  public,  there  should  be  atten- 
tion given  to  the  matter  of  recovering 
the  invested  capital  before  the  expira- 
tion of  activities  through  the  exhaustion 
of  mining  assets,  the  ore  bodies.  This 
practice,  known  as  "amortization,"  is 
being  given  more  and  more  consideration 
as  people  come  to  realize  this  peculiarity 
of  mining.  Some  companies  are  now  so 
organized  and  managed  that  there  is  a 
guaranteed  refund,  at  stated  periods,  or 
whenever  profits  have  accrued,  of  frac- 
tions of  the  invested  capital  with  accu- 
mulated interest  thereon.  These  funds 
are  calculated  to  continue  over  the  num- 
ber of  years  which  it  is  presumed  the 
mines  will  live  so  that  upon  the  cessation 

151 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

of  mining,  the  owners  of  the  stocks  will 
have  been  completely  reimbursed  with 
their  original  outlay  in  addition  to  the 
dividends  that  have  resulted  from  the 
success  of  the  enterprise.  It  is  here  that 
the  problem  of  the  life  of  a  mine  enters 
into  economics,  and  it  is  important  that 
it  be  given  its  due  share  of  study.  Amor- 
tization is  not  of  American  origin  and  it 
has  not  been  adopted  in  this  country  to 
the  extent  which  it  is  bound  to  be  in  the 
future. 

One  means  of  providing  against  an 
extinction  of  a  mining  company's  activity 
with  the  exhaustion  of  the  ore  bodies  in 
the  mines  is  to  provide  new  mining  ter- 
ritory to  which  operations  may  be  trans- 
ferred at  the  proper  time.  This  plan  has 
been  very  successfully  carried  out  by  a 
number  of  large  mining  companies.  When 
a  mining  company  has  been  maintaining 
its  identity  for  a  considerable  period,  it 
has  reached  a  very  desirable  stage  of 
economy  in  the  make-up  of  its  various 
lists  of  officials,  superintendents  and  en- 
gineers. All  this  efficiency  can  be  very 
readily  transferred  to  the  operation  of 

152 


MINING  INVESTMENTS 

virgin  mining  property.  Often  much  of 
the  equipment  of  a  mine  can  be  moved 
and  used  again.  When  a  mine  is  known 
to  be  nearing  its  finish,  there  is  a  hesitancy 
on  the  part  of  the  owners  in  replenishing 
the  equipment  and  sometimes  the  mining 
is  kept  up  through  the  use  of  worn-out, 
inefficient  apparatus  when,  were  the  own- 
ers expecting  to  continue  mining,  they 
would  purchase  and  install  the  new 
equipment  when  it  is  needed. 

One  company  in  the  San  Juan  region  of 
Colorado  prepared  for  the  contingency  by 
purchasing  neighboring  property  to  which 
it  moved  its  operations.  Another  large 
company  bought  a  large  piece  of  mining 
property  in  Mexico,  although  its  initial 
operations  were  in  Colorado.  Placer  min- 
ing companies  frequently  dismantle,  move 
and  re-erect  dredges. 


XVII 
MINE  EQUIPMENTS. 

There  is  a  constant  tendency  toward 
the  adoption  of  machinery  for  the  per- 
formance of  every  mining  act  which, 
formerly,  was  done  by  manual  or  animal 
labor.  There  are  good  reasons  for  this 
tendency.  Good,  trained  labor  is  scarce; 
wages  are  slowly  but  gradually  rising; 
ores  of  lower  grade  must  be  mined,  and 
the  tonnages  must  be  correspondingly 
greater.  The  increased  economy  in  pro- 
duction can  be  brought  about  by  the 
adoption  of  devices  that  will  supplant, 
and  even  excel,  muscular  effort. 

A  machine  can  now  be  installed  and  can 
be  operated  by  a  single  man  to  perform 
the  work  formerly  done  by  many  men. 
There  have  been  machines  invented  to 
entirely,  or  partially,  perform  every  oper- 
ation in  and  around  mines,  and  one  might 
imagine  an  ideal  mine  in  which  all  such 
machines  were  installed.  But  even  there, 


154 


MINE  EQUIPMENTS 

we  should  have  to  grant  the  presence  of 
some  few  men,  for  it  would  not  be  possible 
to  keep  all  the  machines  working  without 
human,  intelligent  control.  In  such  a 
mine,  it  might  be  possible  to  maintain  a 
large  production  with  very  few  laborers 
or  overseers.  Fewer  men  means  less 
wages,  less  labor  trouble,  fewer  fatalities, 
and  less  time  occupied  in  handling  men 
into  and  out  of  the  workings. 

In  some  ways,  copper  mines  are  ahead 
of  gold  mines  in  their  equipment.  Coal 
mines  have  adopted  car  loaders  which 
as  yet  and  without  any  very  good  reasons 
metal  mines  have  not. 

Plants  for  mines  must  utilize  the  same 
sources  of  power  as  are  used  by  any  other 
plants.  Steam  and  water  have  been  the 
usual  forms,  but  electricity  is  gaining  in 
favor  in  places  where  it  can  be  cheaply 
obtained.  At  a  coal  mine,  we  naturally 
expect  to  see  all  the  power  generated 
through  the  combustion  of  coal  under 
boilers.  At  metal  mines — which  are  fre- 
quently remote  from  sources  of  coal 
supply — we  run  across  the  use  of  expen- 


155 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  MINING 

sive  coal  for  all  power  purposes.  When  it 
is  possible  to  obtain  a  sufficient  supply 
and  head,  water  is  adopted  to  furnish  the 
required  power  for  operation.  At  mines, 
with  water  sufficient  to  produce  a  part 
only  of  the  needed  power,  we  may  see 
both  steam  and  water  power  utilized. 
In  the  cases  of  some  mines  which  are 
distant  from  sources  of  both  coal  and 
water  supply,  power  is  generated  at 
points  where  stores  of  natural  energy 
are  available  for  use  and  the  power  is 
transmitted  (usually  as  electricity,  some- 
times as  compressed  air)  over  long  dis- 
tances to  the  mines. 

Some  mines  cannot  be  economically 
operated  without  the  treatment  of  the 
ores  upon,  or  close  to,  the  mining  prop- 
erty. With  certain  sorts  of  low-grade 
ore,  or  with  those  kinds  of  ores  that  may 
be  concentrated  before  shipment,  provis- 
ion should  be  early  made  for  the  erection 
of  appropriately  designed  mills.  We  say 
the  subject  should  be  considered  early, 
but  we  do  not  advocate  the  premature 
erection  of  any  mill.  The  hills  of  the 


156 


MINE  EQUIPMENTS 

Western  mining  states  are  dotted  with 
monuments  to  men's  error  in  this  partic- 
ular. Here  and  there  (not  in  our  own 
country  alone,  but  throughout  the  mining 
world)  one  may  run  across  an  abandoned 
mine  plant,  a  complete  mill,  a  smeltery, 
a  railroad  or  an  aerial  tramway,  all  pre- 
maturely provided  for  outputs  which 
failed  to  materialize. 

There  are  men  still  trying  to  succeed 
in  the  mining  business  while  thinking  it 
is  essential  in  mining  that  a  complete 
plant  be  the  first  thing  given  attention. 
Upon  the  showing  in  a  ten-foot  hole, 
such  men  will  induce  capital  to  take 
interests  enough  to  provide  the  where- 
withal for  purchasing  and  installing  an 
equipment  capable  of  handling  and  treat- 
ing the  output  of  a  big  mine.  This  is 
a  grievous  mistake  that  comes  about 
through  misconceptions.  It  is  often  true 
that  ores  of  the  kind  these  mines  are 
expected  to  produce  should  be  treated 
upon  the  ground.  But  it  is  also  true, 
and  far  more  essential,  that  there  be 
enough  ore  to  supply  the  treatment 


157 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

works.  It  is  rank  folly  then  to  spend  the 
money  needed  to  make  a  mine  upon  a  plant 
to  handle  the  product.  Money  should 
be  spent,  first,  in  exploitation  and  prov- 
ing the  value  of  a  property.  If  the  proof 
is  forthcoming,  it  is  then  time  enough  to 
erect  the  plant.  Meanwhile,  during  the 
development  stages  of  a  mine,  the  proper 
amount  of  experimentation  can  be  con- 
ducted to  ascertain  the  correct  process  for 
treating  the  ore.  If  ores  are  produced  in 
abundance,  they  may  be  shipped  for 
treatment  in  custom  works  until  such 
time  as  the  company's  own  plant  is 
ready;  or  the  ores  may  be  stocked  up  for 
emergency  mill  supply  at  future  times 
when  it  may  be  compulsory  to  curtail 
the  mine  production  because  of  accidents 
or  other  unforeseen  causes. 

One  who  considers  these  matters  from 
an  economic  standpoint  will  recognize 
that  there  must  exist  some  proper  ratio 
of  mine  output  to  treatment  capacity. 
Just  what  this  relationship  is  constitutes 
a  serious  problem  for  each  particular 
mine  and  there  cannot  be  stated  any 


158 


MINE  EQUIPMENTS 

ironclad  rules  that  may  be  applied  to  all 
cases. 

In  the  first  place,  we  believe  a  mine 
will  be  operated  at  its  greatest  economy 
when  it  is  making  its  largest  and  most 
regular  output.  This  being  the  case,  we 
must  agree  that  the  plant  and  mill  must 
be  capable  of  taking  care  of  this  maxi- 
mum output.  It  would  then  seem  axio- 
matic that  the  equipment  must  be  calcu- 
lated according  to  the  mine's  capabilities. 
But,  in  the  youth  of  a  mine,  how  are  we 
to  know  what  its  mature  capacity  will 
be?  Here  comes  the  rub. 

Very  nice  discussions  along  this  line 
have  been  indulged  in  by  British  and 
American  representative  mining  men. 
When  speaking  of  operations  that  are 
typical  of  some  foreign  mining  districts 
and  especially  those  that  possess  ore- 
bodies  whose  extents  are  readily  calcu- 
lated, no  clever  prophecy  is  required  to 
ascertain  the  proper  amount  of  equip- 
ment. But  there  are  many  regions, 
especially  in  our  own  country,  where 
nobody  can  predict,  with  any  degree  of 


159 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

accuracy,  how  extensive  will  prove  to  be 
the  natural  reserves  of  any  mine.  It  is 
in  such  places  as  these  that  hard  study 
and  careful  guessing  are  needed,  and  we 
are  inclined  to  agree  with  George  J.  Ban- 
croft when  he  says,  "To  my  mind,  there 
is  more  credit  due  to  those  who  take  up 
the  hard  propositions  and  make  them 
pay  than  to  those  who  exploit  bonanzas 
along  purely  scientific  lines.  The  first 
usually  require  energy,  sagacity,  perse- 
verance and,  very  often,  daring;  while  the 
others  need  chiefly  cool  calculation." 

It  is  a  safe  practice,  throughout  the 
world,  whenever  there  is  no  absolute 
means  of  reaching  figures  of  a  mine's  ulti- 
mate production,  to  erect  the  treatment 
installations  in  units.  By  a  "unit"  is 
here  meant  the  outfit  of  machinery  and 
the  other  equipment  which  will  handle  a 
specified  round  number  of  tons  per  day. 
In  some  districts,  a  unit  will  be  for  the 
treatment  of  10  tons;  in  other  districts 
this  number  may  run  up  to  100  tons.  In 
the  plans  provisions  are  made  for  addi- 
tions, from  time  to  time,  as  mining 


160 


MINE  EQUIPMENTS 

development  warrants.  Very  much  the 
same  scheme  should  be  followed  in  the 
erection  of  the  plant  for  carrying  on  the 
operations,  which  are  strictly  those  of 
obtaining  the  ore  from  the  earth.  That 
is,  mining  equipment,  as  well  as  the  mill- 
ing equipment,  should  be  on  a  flexible 
plan  so  as  to  be  readily  adapted  to  an 
increased  scale  of  operation.  There  must 
be  space  provided  for  harmonious  addi- 
tions to  the  initial  plant  whenever  such 
extra  parts  are  required. 


11 


XVIII 
MINE   MANAGEMENT. 

No  matter  how  splendid  a  company's 
holdings  may  be  naturally,  there  cannot 
be  expected  any  profits  from  the  work- 
ings of  the  deposits  if  there  be  not  a  sound 
business  management.  H.  C.  Hoover, 
the  prominent  mining  engineer  and  mine 
manager,  says,  "  Good  mine  management 
is  based  upon  three  elements:  first,  sound 
engineering;  second,  proper  coordination 
and  efficiency  of  every  human  unit;  third, 
economy  in  the  purchase  and  consump- 
tion of  supplies."  And  he  goes  on  to 
emphasize  the  fact  that  "no  complete 
manual  will  ever  be  published  upon 
'How  to  Become  a  Good  Mine  Man- 
ager." In  view  of  this  damper  upon 
good  intentions  one  might  possess,  and 
granting  that  the  subject  is  one  that  cannot 
be  taught  (except  along  very  general  lines 
possibly),  no  attempt  will  be  made  to 
enter  into  arguments  concerning  this 
important  subject  of  Mine  Management. 

162 


MINE  MANAGEMENT 

Good  administrative  ability  can  be 
improved  by  cultivation  just  as  can  an 
individual  of  the  vegetable  kingdom;  but 
there  must  first  be  the  existent,  innate 
ability.  No  man  should  attempt  such  a 
hard  proposition  as  the  management  of  a 
mine,  with  its  varied  phases  of  activity, 
unless  he  has  found  himself  possessing 
the  fundamentals  that  go  to  assure  suc- 
cess in  managerial  positions.  Further- 
more, he  should  not  think,  because  he  has 
been  successful  in  running  a  clothing 
business  or  any  other  mercantile  line, 
that  he  is  certain  to  succeed  in  running 
a  mine. 

The  duties  of  directors  and  president 
are  pretty  much  the  same  in  all  sorts  of 
incorporations.  But,  while  there  are 
many  mining  companies — and  successful 
ones,  too — that  hold  upon  their  director- 
ates men  who  probably  never  saw  a 
mine  prior  to  their  present  ventures,  it 
may  still  be  stated  that  it  is  obviously 
advisable  to  select  for  such  places  men 
who  have  knowledge  and  sound  ideas 
concerning  the  industry  of  mining.  To 
be  sure,  if  they  are  ignorant  along  min- 

163 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

ing  lines,  they  can,  and  often  do,  place 
the  blame  for  their  shortcomings  upon 
their  manager,  their  consulting  engineer, 
or  their  superintendent.  But  this  is  not 
an  auspicious  state  of  affairs  and  it  were 
well  for  stockholders  to  see  to  it  that 
they  elect  to  the  directorate  men  who 
are  cognizant  of  mining  economics. 

The  well-organized  mining  concerns  of 
today  maintain  their  engineering  staffs 
just  as  completely  as  do  other  great  tech- 
nical businesses.  The  engineer  is  a  very 
important  man  in  mining  affairs.  His 
duties  are  probably  more  varied  than  those 
that  appertain  to  any  other  sort  of  engi- 
neering. His  operations  will  extend  into 
the  realms  of  the  mechanical,  the  civil, 
the  chemical,  the  metallurgical,  the  hy- 
draulic, and  the  electrical  engineers.  He 
must  be  posted  along  the  latest  concep- 
tions in  geology,  mineralogy,  and  physics. 
Besides  he  should  be  an  accurate  and 
rapid  mathematician  and  draftsman. 

The  manager  finds  in  the  engineer  his 
most  helpful  and  trusted  aid.  Often 
the  engineer  performs  many  of  the  func- 
tions usually  attaching  to  the  office  of 

164 


MINE  MANAGEMENT 

manager  and,  in  the  absence  of  the  latter 
person,  he  may  attend  to  all  of  the  man- 
agement. As  stated  above,  the  qualities 
that  make  a  good  manager  are  inherent; 
hence,  to  a  certain  extent,  we  may  hold 
the  deduction  that  good  mining  engineers, 
also,  must  possess  innate  qualities.  Yet 
there  may  be  pointed  out  this  distinction 
between  the  make-up  of  a  good  man  for 
manager  and  that  of  a  good  mining  engi- 
neer: one,  as  said,  cannot  learn  his  busi- 
ness except  through  his  own  experience, 
while  the  other  can  receive  vast  benefit 
by  study  of  a  theoretical  nature  and  by 
practice. 

Lately,  there  is  much  said  about  the 
consulting  mining  engineer.  His  field  of 
usefulness  is  broad.  He  can  be  asked  to 
add  his  opinions  and  recommendations 
to  those  of  the  regular  engineer,  at  any 
time;  he  can  be  used  at  times  when  the 
duties  are  too  much  for  the  resident 
engineer;  he  can  be  called  upon  to  sub- 
stitute; he  need  not  live  near  the  property, 
but  may  visit  it  periodically.  Thus, 
while  his  retention  is  deemed  remunera- 
tive, his  services  are  available  at  a 

165 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

fractional  part  of  what  he  would  demand 
if  he  were  employed  exclusively  by  the 
company. 

Under  ordinary  working  conditions,  it 
should  be  considered  just  as  essential  for 
a  mine  to  take  an  occasional  inven- 
tory as  it  is  for  a  mercantile  establish- 
ment. In  truth,  there  is  far  more  need 
in  mining  operations  of  the  knowledge 
thus  derived  than  in  any  other  business. 
In  mining,  as  already  suggested,  the  busi- 
ness is  one  of  selling  off  the  stock  in  trade 
without  replenishing  it.  The  opening 
of  more  reserves  of  ore  is  not  bringing 
more  goods  into  the  stock,  but  it  may  be 
likened  to  simply  unpacking  more  goods 
in  the  storehouse.  No  new  reserve  can 
be  added — they  can  simply  be  found  and 
unpacked,  as  it  were. 

This  finding  entails  the  greatest  amount 
of  concern,  and  upon  its  successful  prac- 
tice depends  the  life  of  the  mine.  The 
presumption  is  strong  that  many  mines 
have  been  abandoned  while  they  really 
contained  possibilities;  but  lack  of  knowl- 
edge of  things  geological,  or  perhaps 
failures  to  explore,  permitted  the  opera- 
ice 


MINE  MANAGEMENT 

tors  to  remain  ignorant  of  the  splendid 
assets  that  were  available.  Proof  of  this 
error  has  been  found  in  many  mines  that 
have  been  subsequently  re-opened. 

The  work  of  sizing  up  the  quantity 
and  the  value  of  available  ore  is  known  as 
sampling.  It  is  not  well  to  limit  the 
practice  of  sampling  to  the  times  only 
when  a  sale  is  contemplated.  Reports 
based  upon  careful  sampling  should  be 
issued  frequently.  Some  companies  em- 
ploy men  whose  sole  occupation  is  the 
daily  sampling  of  every  working  face. 
The  assay  results  obtained  from  the 
collected  samples  inform  the  superintend- 
ent just  "how  the  stuff  is  holding  up" 
throughout  the  mine  and  he  governs  his 
work  accordingly.  At  longer  intervals, 
the  engineer  should  go  into  the  work 
more  thoroughly  by  not  only  taking 
very  careful,  scientific  samples  (not  the 
usual  "grab"  samples  taken  by  the  daily 
sampler)  but  also  by  making  careful 
memoranda  of  the  physical  appearances 
of  the  ore  with  its  thickness  and  all  geo- 
logical data  that  will  tend  to  throw  light 
upon  the  permanency  of  each  body.  The 

167 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

engineer's  monthly  report  will  then  be  a 
substantial  guide  to  the  manager  and  the 
directors. 

Managers,  too,  are  expected  to  make 
periodical  reports — monthly,  quarterly, 
or  annually — to  the  directors  who,  in 
turn,  issue  reports  to  the  stockholders. 
The  reports  of  managers  and  directors 
are  not  usually  technical  in  their  nature, 
although  sometimes  it  is  the  practice  of 
a  manager  to  attach  the  engineer's  report 
to  his  own  for  the  perusal  of  such  readers 
as  may  desire  to  dip  into  the  technical 
affairs  of  the  operations.  Usually,  the 
directors'  reports  are  of  a  simple,  finan- 
cial nature,  stating  the  conditions  of 
affairs  in  plain  business  language  to  the 
persons  whose  cash  has  been  invested  in 
the  enterprise. 

It  may  happen  that,  for  some  reason, 
a  special  report  is  desired  by  the  directors 
who  may  be  contemplating  some  consoli- 
dation or  other  financial  move  and  both 
the  manager  and  the  engineer  will  be 
required  to  furnish  detailed  statements 
concerning  their  respective  branches.  If 
a  sale  is  planned,  it  may  be  that  not  only 

168 


MINE  MANAGEMENT 

the  company's  engineer,  but  very  prob- 
ably another  engineer  engaged  by  the 
contemplative  purchaser,  will  make  ex- 
aminations. They  may  work  together 
or  separately,  as  best  suits  them  mutually, 
but  it  is  upon  the  reports  issued  by  them 
that  the  satisfactory  price  for  the  ex- 
change of  title  is  based. 


XIX 
PRICES  OF  METALS. 

There  is  only  one  product  of  mines 
that  has  a  constant  market  value,  viz., 
gold.  The  precious  metals,  gold,  silver, 
and  platinum,  are  sold  by  the  Troy  ounce: 
the  base  metals  are  all  handled  and  dealt 
with  on  avoirdupois  weights.  Copper, 
lead,  zinc,  tin,  and  nickel  are  quoted  in 
cents  per  pound  avoirdupois.  Iron  and 
manganese  are  curiously  sold  by  mines 
to  smelting  companies  on  the  ton  of  ore 
basis. 

Since  gold  has  been  found  in  every 
known  rock  of  every  geologic  age  and  is 
of  world-wide  distribution;  since  it  pos- 
sesses physical  properties  that  long  ago 
placed  it  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  desir- 
able metals;  and  further,  since  it  does 
not  occur  in  very  condensed  amounts, 
generally;  this  metal  was  selected  as  the 
standard  of  value  by  which  the  worth  of 
every  other  commodity  in  the  world  is 
fixed.  It  must  therefore  be  possessed  of 

170 


PRICES  OF  METALS 

a  fixed  market  value,  and  one  never  looks 
for  quotations  on  pure  gold.  The  price 
of  pure  gold  is  set  at  $20.6718.  This  very 
peculiar  value  is  known  as  the  "mint 
value,"  and  is  the  price  which  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  pays  for  all  of 
its  coinage  gold.  Among  miners,  as  a 
rule,  the  price  is  thought  of  as  $20  per 
ounce,  and  this  is  probably  because  this 
is  more  nearly  the  actual  return  the  miner 
has  been  accustomed  to  obtain  from  com- 
panies who  have  bought  and  treated  his 
ores.  Most  all  the  gold  produced  in  the 
world  is  associated  with  other  metals, 
such  as  silver,  copper,  or  platinum,  so 
that  the  bullion  recovered  in  milling  or 
smelting  will  usually  contain  the  gold 
alloyed  with  such  other  metals  and  the 
gold  is  said  to  be  not  "fine,"  or  pure. 
The  fineness  of  gold  in  the  metallic  state 
is  expressed  in  two  ways.  Jewelers  have 
the  carat  system,  while  mints  use  the 
decimal  system  in  expressing  such  degrees 
of  purity.  Pure  gold  is  24-carat  fine.  An 
alloy  of  3  parts  gold  and  1  part  copper 
would  be  considered  as  18-carat  gold.  In 
the  decimal  system,  pure  gold  is  called 

171 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

1,000  fine,  and  the  various  degrees  of 
purity  are  then  expressed  in  their  true 
proportional  amounts.  Thus  the  same 
alloy  as  cited  above  would  be  called  750 
fine  gold. 

Silver  has  a  fluctuating  market  value 
although  attempts  have  been  made,  at 
times,  to  establish  its  value  at  some  fixed 
ratio  to  the  value  of  gold.  In  fact,  a 
reader  may  occasionally  run  across  sta- 
tistics of  silver  production  in  which  it 
appears  as  though  there  were  a  fixed 
value  for  the  metal,  but  this  will  be 
found  to  be  due  to  the  use  of  what  is 
known  as  the  "coinage  value,"  which  is 
$1.29198.  This  figure  will  be  recognized 
as  our  old  acquaintance,  "16  to  1,"  i.e., 
this  price  for  silver  being  one-sixteenth 
of  the  fixed  price  for  gold.  There  is 
actually  no  such  fixation,  and  prices  for 
silver  are  established  every  business  day 
of  the  year  in  the  great  metal  markets 
of  the  world,  London  and  New  York. 

Platinum  has  been  increasing  in  market 
value  during  recent  years  and  the  quota- 
tions have  ranged  up  so  high  that  it  is 
now  more  than  twice  as  valuable  as  gold. 

172 


PRICES  OF  METALS 

The  reasons  for  this  high  price  are  that 
the  production  of  the  metal  is  limited, 
whereas  the  uses  for  the  metal  have  been 
increasing.  The  greatest  production  of 
this  metal  is  in  the  Ural  Mountains  of 
Russia,  and  the  output  from  this  region 
is  handled  by  a  few  concerns  who  virtu- 
ally possess  a  monoply.  These  companies 
are  able  to  maintain  the  production  prac- 
tically constant  and  to  cause  the  market 
price  to  fluctuate. 

Tin  is  found  in  commercial  amounts 
in  but  very  few  regions.  There  is  but 
one  mineral  mined  as  an  ore  of  tin,  viz., 
cassiterite,  the  oxide,  which  is  78  per 
cent  tin.  Tin  is  found  in  both  veins  and 
placers  and  the  great  bulk  of  the  metal  is 
now  being  derived  from  the  latter  type 
of  bodies  in  the  Malay  Peninsula  and  the 
Straits  of  the  East  Indies.  Formerly, 
Cornwall  produced  the  world's  supply, 
from  veins.  Although  the  United  States 
consumes  35  per  cent  to  40  per  cent  of  the 
world's  production,  the  country  does  not 
produce  1  per  cent  of  this  production. 
Since  the  main  source  of  our  tin  is  British 
territory,  the  markets  are  controlled  by 

173 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

London,  and  quotations  are  issued  daily 
from  that  center.  Such  quotations  are 
given  in  units  of  English  money  per  long 
ton  (2240  pounds)  of  metal.  However, 
prices  are  also  quoted  at  New  York, 
daily,  in  cents  per  pound,  and  there  is  a 
real  difference  in  value  between  the  two 
quotations  to  take  care  of  freights  and 
duty.  For  instance,  on  a  certain  date, 
quotations  were  £190  10s,  and  42c.  The 
average  price  during  1911  in  New  York 
was  42.281  cents. 

The  chief  supply  of  nickel  now  comes 
from  the  Canadian  districts  of  Cobalt 
and  Sudbury,  where  this  metal  occurs 
accompanying  rich  silver  deposits.  The 
metal  is  sold  by  the  pound  avoirdupois 
and  prices  in  January,  1912,  ranged  from 
40c.  to  50c. 

Tungsten  is  a  metal  which  has  been 
finding  more  and  more  uses  of  late  years, 
but  the  production  has  remained  quite 
limited.  Three-quarters  of  the  world's 
total  production  in  1911  came  from  a 
small  district  in  Boulder  County,  Colo- 
rado. The  quotations  on  this  metal  are 
given  in  dollars  per  ton  of  concentrated 

174 


PRICES  OF  METALS 

ore,  and  the  price  is  for  a  certain  per- 
centage of  WO3,  the  oxide  of  wolfram 
(tungsten).  The  schedule  of  prices  an- 
nounced in  April,  1912,  for  Boulder 
County  ores  and  concentrates  provides  as 
follows,  a  unit  being  understood  to  mean 
1  per  cent  or  20  pounds  per  ton:  For 
material  assaying  10  per  cent  WO3,  $3.50 
per  unit;  for  20  per  cent  WO3,  $4.40  per 
unit;  for  40  per  cent  and  more,  $4.90  per 
unit.  Ore  containing,  say,  50  per  cent  of 
the  tungsten  radical  is  thus  salable  at 
$245  per  ton,  the  mineral  itself  thus 
bringing  a  price  of  24j^  cents  per  pound. 
Although  copper  is  used  and  sold  in 
very  large  lots  commercially,  it  continues 
to  be  quoted  upon  the  pound  basis.  The 
United  States  produces  about  60  per  cent 
of  the  whole  amount  mined  in  the  world 
and  the  prices  are  made  in  New  York 
daily.  The  amount  of  copper  mined  in 
this  country  in  1911  was  1,431,938,338 
pounds  and  the  price  varied  between 
11.989  cents  and  13.768  cents.  There  are 
always  at  least  two  quotations  every  day 
on  copper,  one  being  on  "lake"  and  an- 
other on  "electrolytic."  By  these  terms 

175 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  MINING 

are  meant,  respectively,  copper  produced 
in  the  Lake  Superior  region  and  the  copper 
from  other  mines.  The  Lake  Superior 
copper  is  the  purest  in  the  world  and  it 
always  sells  for  a  fraction  of  a  cent  per 
pound  more  than  the  other  coppers  which 
are  refined  by  electrolysis. 

Metallic  iron  is  reduced  from  a  num- 
ber of  different  ores,  but  by  far  the  bulk 
of  pig-iron  is  made  from  the  oxides  and  car- 
bonates of  iron.  Such  ores,  in  the  United 
States,  are  obtained  principally  in  Minne- 
sota, Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Alabama. 
As  already  stated,  the  quotations  on  iron 
are  based  upon  the  ores  rather  than  the 
pig-iron,  and  there  are  two  types  of  such 
ore  recognized.  If  the  ore  is  suitable  for 
the  making  of  Bessemer  steel,  it  is  given 
a  certain  quotation  per  ton,  while  if  it 
cannot  be  used  for  such  a  purpose,  it  is 
given  a  non-Bessemer  rating  and  is  used 
for  casting.  The  greatest  iron-mining 
region  in  the  world  is  in  the  Lake  Super- 
ior country.  Here  are  a  number  of  dis- 
tricts that  are  known  as  "ranges."  In 
some  of  these  ranges  mining  is  by  under- 
ground methods,  while  in  others  the 

176 


PRICES  OF  METALS 

excavation  is  entirely  in  the  open  by  the 
use  of  great  steam  shovels.  The  outputs 
of  these  ranges  go  by  rail  and  water  to 
the  great  smelting  points  along  the  Great 
Lakes  and  at  Pittsburg. 

The  metallic  zinc  on  the  market  is 
known  as  spelter.  All  quotations  on  this 
metal  are  given  in  two  systems,  the 
"pounds  Sterling  per  long  ton"  and  the 
"cents  per  pound."  The  average  prices 
during  1911  were  respectively,  £25.281 
and  5.758  c.  The  American  quotations 
are  frequently  given  in  the  unit  of  dollars 
per  hundredweight.  This  offers  no  con- 
fusion, whatever,  for  under  this  nomen- 
clature, the  average  price  for  1911  would 
be  stated  as  $5.758.  In  the  zinc-mining 
regions  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  the 
producers  of  ore  have  a  practice  of  put- 
ting the  mines'  products  through  their 
own  mills  at  the  mines  and  making  con- 
centrates of  the  zinc  mineral,  which  is 
usually  blende  or  "jack,"  and  this  con- 
centrated stuff  is  then  sold  to  smelting 
companies  at  the  daily  quotations  per 
ton  of  60  per  cent  ore.  During  1911  the 
average  price  paid  in  the  Joplin  District 

14  177 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

was  $41.45.  Since  this  amount  bought 
1,200  pounds  of  metallic  zinc,  it  is  evident 
that  the  miner  received  only  about  3.45 
cents  per  pound  for  his  metal,  the  dis- 
crepancy between  this  sum  and  the  New 
York  quotation  being  consumed  in  costs 
of  smelting  and  shipment  and  in  profits 
to  the  middlemen. 

Lead  is  sold  upon  a  plan  exactly  similar 
to  zinc.  It  has  the  same  various  quota- 
tions. For  example,  the  1911  prices  in 
London,  New  York,  and  Joplin  averaged, 
respectively,  £13.970,  4.420c.,  and  $56.76. 

Quicksilver  is  sold  by  the  "flask"  of 
75  pounds.  The  price  ranges  in  the 
neighborhood  of  $43  to  $45. 

There  are  numerous  other  metals,  but 
the  more  common  ones  are  given  above. 
Below  is  given  a  graphical  exhibit  of 
the  course  of  the  prices  of  lead,  spelter, 
standard  (electrolytic)  and  lake  copper, 
pig-iron,  and  tin  for  a  number  of  years. 
A  study  of  this  chart  is  interesting  in 
noting  the  waves  or  fluctuations  that 
have  covered  periods  of  years.  This 
chart  is  reproduced  from  The  Engineering 
and  Mining  Journal. 

178 


XX 

MINE  ACCOUNTING. 

While  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of 
attention  given  to  the  matter  of  keeping 
systematic  mine  accounts,  both  in  the 
main  offices  and  those  at  the  works,  there 
still  is  a  lack  of  uniformity  in  practice. 
In  the  bookkeeping  of  manufacturing 
and  mercantile  institutions,  uniform  prac- 
tices or  systems  have  become  a  feature. 
But  there  have  been  good  reasons  for 
the  absence  of  similar  methods  in  mine 
offices. 

There  will  be  found  to  exist  some  uni- 
formity in  the  accounting  as  practised 
by  the  mines  of  a  particular  district  which 
are  operating  under  similar  conditions; 
but  when  one  considers  that  the  mines 
of  various  districts  have  quite  dissimilar 
conditions  throughout  almost  every  phase 
of  the  business,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
different  methods  must  be  employed 
in  the  keeping  of  their  accounts.  It  is 
unavoidable.  Mines  extracting  different 

179 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

metals  or  different  kinds  of  coal  will  find 
it  necessary  to  keep  quite  unlike  records. 
Mines  with  their  own  mills  will  likewise 
require  a  different  system  of  accounting 
from  those  that  ship  their  products  to 
custom  works.  Open  and  underground 
mines  will  need  quite  different  styles  of 
accounts. 

So,  it  is  not  possible  to  recommend  any 
one  method  of  mine  accounting.  The 
best  way  to  become  posted  upon  this 
subject  is  to  investigate  the  schemes, 
the  blank  forms  and  the  books  of  some 
of  the  established,  successful  companies 
here  and  there  about  the  world.  In  this 
way,  ideas  will  be  collected,  and  it  will 
be  possible  for  the  investigator  to  evolve 
his  own  schemes  for  recording  the  ac- 
counts of  his  company. 

It  has  come  to  be  recognized  as  con- 
tributing to  economy  to  maintain  systems 
of  accounts  that  will  enter  into  minutiae 
concerning  every  branch  of  the  business. 
Just  how  far  this  can  be  carried  without 
creating  office  expenses  that  will  exceed 
the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  the 
detailed  information  remains  a  question 

180 


MINE  ACCOUNTING 

to  be  decided  by  each  manager.  There 
are  companies  with  accounts  so  perfected 
that  it  is  possible  to  quickly  ascertain,  to 
a  fraction  of  a  cent,  what  the  expendi- 
tures of  any  day  have  been  for  any 
particular  part  of  the  operations,  as  for 
instance,  the  haulage  per  ton  under- 
ground, or  the  fuse  employed  in  the  blast- 
ing of  a  particular  stope.  Such  details 
are  highly  useful  since  they  prevent  leaks 
in  the  costs;  but  it  is  a  problem  to 
decide  to  what  extent  it  is  economy  to 
carry  them.  These  data  also  furnish  the 
superintendent  information  concerning 
the  efficiency  of  his  many  laborers  and 
the  machinery.  Labor-saving  inventions, 
such  as  the  printed  blank  form,  and  the 
loose  leaf,  are  put  to  excellent  use  in 
mining  offices. 

There  are  strong  companies  operating 
great  mining  plants  whose  records  are 
open  to  the  perusal  of  any  individual,  be 
he  stockholder  or  not.  In  the  office  of 
such  a  company,  a  person  may  turn  to 
the  accounts  and  see  for  himself  how 
much  it  costs  to  maintain  each  and  all 
of  the  operations  and  he  can  learn  the 

181 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  MINING 

size  and  the  value  of  all  shipments  of  prod- 
ucts of  any  sort — ore,  concentrates,  coal, 
matte,  or  bullion.  Again,  there  are  those 
companies  that  are  so  secretive  about 
everything  connected  with  their  work  that 
even  the  Government  is  unable  to  learn 
any  particulars,  except  at  very  great 
trouble. 

The  Portland  Gold  Mining  Company, 
operating  a  great  property  at  Victor,  in 
the  Cripple  Creek  District,  is  an  instance 
of  the  first  sort,  while  the  United  Verde 
mine,  at  Jerome,  Arizona,  may  be  taken 
to  represent  the  second  sort.  Both  of 
these  mines  have  made  splendid  records. 
It  cannot  be  seen  wherein  the  second 
mine  is  required  to  maintain  secrecy,  for 
there  is  no  danger  of  litigation  from 
neighboring  property  holders,  the  one 
company  controlling,  practically,  the 
mining  in  its  neighborhood.  The  pre- 
sumption is  that  the  owners  hold  their 
business  to  be  nobody's  else  and  they 
have  a  right  to  keep  their  affairs  secret 
if  they  desire.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Portland  is  surrounded  by  good  mines 
which  profit  by  knowing  the  details  of 

182 


MINE  ACCOUNTING 

operating  costs  and  incomes  of  their 
neighbor;  but  it  is  found  to  cost  no  more 
to  be  open  and  above  board  than  to  keep 
things  under  guard.  The  Colorado  Fuel 
and  Iron  Company  will  not  divulge  any 
particulars  concerning  its  mining  move- 
ments; but  there  are  other  just  as  great 
mining  companies  that  will  explain  every 
detail. 

The  Clark  copper  companies,  of  Butte, 
Montana,  did  not  permit  much  infor- 
mation to  escape  their  offices,  while  the 
neighboring  Amalgamated  companies  gave 
particulars  freely. 

The  question  of  secrecy  should  be  con- 
sidered, and  if  there  is  no  very  good 
excuse  for  maintaining  a  privacy  it  should 
not  be  instituted.  The  trend  of  all  mod- 
ern thought  is  along  the  line  of  publicity 
in  all  our  dealings.  The  only  persons 
who  have  a  reasonable  right  to  be  secre- 
tive are  those  who  have  something  they 
do  not  care  to  share  or  divulge  to  their 
fellow-men.  Law  breakers,  tax  dodgers, 
and  trespassers,  could  be  put  into  one 
class;  persons  doing  research  work  which 
it  is  premature  to  publish  are  a  more 

183 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

respectable  class;  manufacturers  with 
strong  competition  in  the  sales  markets 
are  in  a  measure  excusable;  even  a  mine 
which  is  producing  some  material  in  the 
sale  of  which  it  attempts  to  maintain  a 
monopoly  might  be  excusable.  But  it  is 
hard  to  see  what  excuse  or  benefit  there 
is  for  a  coal  or  a  copper  mining  company 
to  prevent  a  knowledge  of  its  affairs,  if 
the  business  is  being  conducted  along 
strictly  legitimate  lines. 


XXI 

INVESTMENT  IN  MINING  STOCKS. 

As  a  feature  of  investment  in  mining 
stocks,  there  has  always  been  a  more  or 
less  open  lure.  Generally  much  larger 
returns  are  promised  or  are  expected  than 
in  other  kinds  of  investments.  There 
may  be  absolutely  no  intention  on  the 
part  of  the  seller  to  create  this  impres- 
sion; but  there  does,  somehow,  exist  in 
the  memories  of  people  accounts  of 
wonderful  fortunes  that  have  been  made 
in  mining. 

There  is  an  amount  of  uncertainty 
about  any  mine  or  prospect  that  appeals 
to  the  speculative  proclivities  in  humans 
and  it  is  hard  for  most  persons  to  resist 
the  notion  that  greater  or  richer  bodies 
of  ore  may,  at  any  time,  be  discovered 
in  their  particular  mining  properties. 
Concerning  the  average  stock  purchaser, 
then,  we  may  conclude  that  it  is  specula- 
tion rather  than  true  investment  that 
he  is  seeking. 

185 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

The  writer  hopes  that,  even  in  the 
short  preceding  discussions,  the  reader 
will  have  come  to  agree  with  him  and  to 
understand  that  safe  investments  are  as 
possible  in  mining  as  in  any  other  busi- 
ness. It  would  be  a  great  benefit  to  this 
great  industry  of  mining  were  the  public 
taught  to  take  interests — that  is,  financial 
interests — in  mining  concerns  with  the 
same  precautions  and  with  the  same 
sound  business  sense  that  accompany 
the  purchases  of  interests  in  other  enter- 
prises. Writing  along  this  line  of  thought, 
Mr.  P.  A.  Leonard  has  this  to  say  in 
The  Mining  World:  "One  very  general 
difficulty  seems  to  be  that  the  man  unac- 
quainted with  mines  who  is  asked  to 
invest  either  expects  an  unreasonable 
return  for  his  money,  or  he  blindly  closes 
his  eyes  and  takes  what  he  calls  a  'flyer,' 
expecting  little  more  from  it  than  he 
would  if  he  bought  margins  on  'change 
or  bet  on  a  horse  race." 

About  the  first  thing  that  the  promo- 
ters of  a  new  mining  company  do  is  to 
issue  a  neat,  attractive  prospectus.  It  is 
a  bait,  no  matter  how  reliable  these  men 

186 


INVESTMENT  IN  MINING  STOCKS 

may  be  nor  how  worthy  the  property 
they  desire  to  work.  Many  of  these  doc- 
uments are  written  in  absolutely  good 
faith  and  every  representation  is  intended 
to  be  accurate.  There  are  occasionally 
offered  for  sale  stocks  in  mining  proper- 
ties that  warrant  the  fullest  confidence 
of  the  promoters  and  the  investors. 
However,  careful  perusal  of  a  great  many 
of  these  pamphlets  has  led  the  writer 
to  the  conclusion  that  at  least  75  per 
cent,  of  them  are  unreliable  from  the  fact 
that  they  either  wilfully  misrepresent  or 
because  they  grossly  exaggerate  the  prob- 
abilities of  success  beyond  all  reason. 
Exaggeration  is  a  habit  with  some  people 
and  it  is  used  many  times  with  no  real 
criminal  intent  or  even  consciousness 
upon  the  part  of  the  offender.  But  its 
effect  is  just  as  baneful  when  innocently 
inflicted  as  when  it  is  used  in  a  premed- 
itated manner. 

Good,  worthy  mining  property  does 
not  need  to  be  hawked,  usually.  There 
have  been  periods  of  financial  unrest 
when  it  has  seemed  quite  impossible  for 
honest  men  to  dispose  of  interests  in 

187 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

what  were  unquestionably  reliable  min- 
ing enterprises.  At  such  times,  there  has 
been  nothing  to  gain  by  any  amount  of 
teasing  the  public,  and  any  attempts  at 
forceful  disposal  of  interests  in  the  con- 
cerns have  but  served  to  kill  any  small 
remnants  of  confidence  that  the  public 
may  have  possessed. 

Prospectuses  are  usually  prepared  for 
the  reading  of  small  investors  who  may 
feel  inclined  to  risk  a  few  dollars  or,  in 
other  words,  to  speculate  upon  the  rep- 
resentations contained  in  the  seductive 
pamphlets.  There  are  a  few  "Don'ts" 
which  it  would  be  well  for  any  person 
inclined  to  invest  in  mining  stocks  to 
read,  consider,  and  follow.  For  instance, 
never  invest  in  any  new  stock  whose 
company  guarantees  specific  dividends. 
Profits  in  mining,  except  in  rare  cases, 
cannot  be  so  accurately  foretold  as  to 
warrant  such  a  guarantee.  We  should 
remember  that  the  success  of  any  mine 
depends  upon  many,  very  many,  contin- 
gencies and  that  some  of  them  are  invis- 
ible and  are  among  Nature's  secrets. 
Again,  avoid  placing  any  confidence  in 

188 


INVESTMENT  IN  MINING  STOCKS 

those  companies  that  are  simultaneously 
selling  treasury  stock  and  declaring  divi- 
dends. This  is  a  very  common  practice 
of  the  numerous  "get- rich-quick"  con- 
cerns which  Uncle  Sam  has  been  routing 
the  past  few  years.  Such  crooked  prac- 
tice is  difficult  to  eradicate,  although 
severe  penalties  are  awarded  the  trans- 
gressors. 

The  success  which  has  been  met  in  the 
operation  of  the  great  mining  companies 
of  the  world  can,  in  the  majority  of  cases, 
be  traced  to  the  common  sense  which  was 
exercised  in  the  business  management. 
The  business  of  mining  is  legitimate.  If 
mining  is  one  of  the  basic  industries  of 
the  world,  how  could  the  operation  of  a 
real  mine  be  anything  but  a  legitimate 
business?  The  mere  fact  that  there  have 
been  neat  opportunities  for,  and  the  prac- 
tice of,  fraud  in  the  growth  of  this  tremen- 
dous industry  does  not  by  any  means, 
argue  that  the  whole  thing  is  founded 
upon  unstable  premises. 

What  is  needed  is  a  presentation  of  the 
industry  in  its  legitimate  aspect  before 
all  kinds  of  investors  and  this  can  be 

189 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

done  properly  and  effectively  only  by 
the  rank  and  file  of  men  interested  in 
mining.  These  men  should  place  them- 
selves boldly  on  record  as  combating  all 
sorts  of  deals  that  smack  of  fraud,  and 
they  should  do  their  utmost  to  discour- 
age all  delusions  that  may  exist  in  the 
mind  of  the  public  with  reference  to  the 
supposed  lure  offered  by  mining. 

There  have  been  too  many  causes  of 
failure  in  mining  for  even  a  partial  enum- 
eration of  them.  There  have  been  many 
errors  in  getting  started,  both  on  the 
part  of  the  organizers  and  the  investors. 
There  have  been  many  mistakes  in  man- 
agement. Many  blunders  have  been 
evidenced  in  the  operation  of  mines  which 
made  very  good  starts.  All  of  these  fail- 
ures are  attributable  to  something  outside 
of  the  mine's  intrinsic  worth;  they  are 
mistakes  due  to  inexperience  or  miscon- 
ception. Such  shortcomings  should  not 
be  tolerated  in  the  make-up  of  a  mine's 
managerial  staff. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  common  mis- 
takes of  mine  managers  is  to  submit  to  a 
condition  of  nepotism  that  is  often  fur- 

190 


INVESTMENT  IN  MINING  STOCKS 

thered  by  directors  or  stockholders.  No 
responsible  position  around  a  mine  should 
be  filled  by  a  novice.  Just  because  a 
director  has  two  or  three  sons  needing 
situations  does  not  make  it  incumbent 
upon  a  superintendent  or  a  manager  to 
jeopardize  his  reputation  by  employing 
these  young  men.  Percy  Williams,  a 
veteran  mining  man,  advised  "Don't 
take  your  son  or  nephew  or  your  clerk 
out  of  your  store  or  business  house  and 
send  him  to  Arizona  or  Colorado  to  run 
things  for  you  at  the  mine.  Sell  out  first. 
If  you  are  a  director  in  a  mining  company, 
do  not  force  the  manager  or  superinten- 
dent to  find  a  job  for  all  your  unsuccessful 
friends  and  relatives.  Let  him  hire  his 
own  men.  Don't  convert  your  mine  into 
an  asylum  for  ne'er-do-wells." 

As  already  stated,  there  is  protection 
obtainable  by  every  investor  in  mining. 
One  may  always  secure,  at  reasonable 
cost,  the  services  of  competent  engineers 
whose  business  consists  in  sizing  up  the 
worth  of  mining  property.  If  the  serv- 
ices of  these  men  were  more  generally 
appreciated  and  secured,  there  would  be 

191 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

a  great  diminution  in  the  number  of  dis- 
appointments following  investments  in 
mining.  An  eastern  man  of  means  com- 
plained to  the  writer  about  the  way  in 
which  he  had  been  "stung"  in  various 
mining  investments.  A  little  catechizing 
brought  forth  the  facts  that  he  knew 
absolutely  nothing  about  mining  in  gen- 
eral and  that,  worse  still,  he  had  never 
investigated — that  is,  in  a  businesslike 
manner — any  of  the  propositions  which 
had  absorbed  his  ready  money.  Receiv- 
ing no  sympathy  during  the  recital  of  his 
troubles  but,  instead,  the  assurance  that 
he  "got  what  was  coming  to  him,"  he 
was  prepared  to  sit  up,  take  notice,  and 
listen  to  a  severe  roasting  which  opened 
his  eyes  about  mining  matters.  Now, 
this  man  has  proved  successful  in  other 
lines  of  business.  He  is  a  prominent 
lawyer  and  banker  in  his  own  city  and 
has  numerous,  scattered,  money-making 
interests.  But  he  was  content  to  go  into 
mining  without  the  investigation  which 
it  is  certain  he  would  have  given  to  any 
other  sort  of  an  investment. 

The    time    should    come    when    there 

192 


INVESTMENT  IN  MINING  STOCKS 

would  not  be  such  a  prevalent  "slaughter 
of  the  innocents"  in  mining  investments. 
People  must  learn  to  curb  their  gullibility 
in  such  affairs.  But  this  has  proved 
almost  impossible.  Just  as  it  is  in  the 
nature  of  some  persons  to  gamble,  and  it 
takes  something  more  than  misfortune  at 
gaming  to  wean  them  from  the  vice,  so  it 
is  with  a  certain  class  of  men  who  can  not 
overcome  the  temptations  of  dabbling 
in  mining.  Such  men  will  not  desist 
even  when  they  have  suffered  several 
delusions,  and  will  continue  to  "send 
their  good  money  after  their  bad,"  abso- 
lutely defiant  of  the  well-meant  advice 
of  friends  who  are  often  in  position  to 
judge  of  the  merits  of  any  contemplated 
investment.  Probably  every  mining  en- 
gineer of  any  extended  experience  can 
tell  of  instances  in  which  he  has  endeav- 
ored to  discourage  clients  from  invest- 
ment in  unworthy  mining  enterprises 
but  in  which  the  gambling  instinct  of  the 
clients  has  overridden  the  sound  advice. 
During  the  early  days  of  the  wonder- 
ful Cripple  Creek  District,  all  sorts  of 
wildcat  tricks  were  successfully  practiced 

13  193 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

upon  the  "  tender! eet "  and  the  "  down-east 
suckers."  In  one  case,  stock  was  readily 
unloaded  upon  the  representation  that  a 
person  could  stand  in  the  door  of  the 
cabin  on  the  property  and  "look  right 
into  the  shaft-house  of  the  Independence 
mine."  This  statement  was  not  untrue, 
although  grossly  misleading;  for  while 
it  was  actually  quite  possible  by  the  use 
of  a  telescope  to  span  the  intervening 
three  or  four  miles,  visually,  the  prospect 
lacked  the  propinquity  to  the  famous 
mine  that  was  the  bait  implied  by  the 
statement  in  the  prospectus.  This  is 
but  one  of  many  ingenious  tricks  that 
were  played.  Did  the  outcome  of  this 
one  fraud  cure  the  victims  of  irrational 
mining  investment? 

Railroads,  too,  have,  in  the  past,  added 
their  troubles  to  the  mining  men.  Recent 
laws  have,  however,  to  a  great  extent, 
mitigated  the  annoyances  and  unjust 
practices  that  the  common  carrying  com- 
panies have  been  in  the  habit  of  commit- 
ting. It  is  now  obligatory  upon  a  railroad 
company  to  treat  all  shippers  without 
favor  or  discrimination,  so  that  the  diffi- 

194 


INVESTMENT  IN  MINING  STOCKS 

culties  formerly  experienced  by  one  min- 
ing company  in  getting  enough  ore  cars 
to  transport  its  shipments  while  its  rival 
company  could  have  cars  in  abundance, 
is  now  almost  a  thing  of  the  past.  It 
takes  time  to  right  all  wrongs  of  this.  sort. 
It  is  a  slow  matter  to  get  laws  framed, 
passed  through  the  necessary  legislation, 
and  made  effective.  But  the  outlook  is 
favorable,  along  this  line. 

The  leasing  system  has  exercised  an 
influence  upon  the  mining  activity  of 
many  districts.  By  this  system  is  meant 
the  custom  of  renting  or  letting  the  whole, 
*or  fractional  parts,  of  a  mining  property 
to  miners  who  enter  upon  and  work  the 
premises,  extract  the  ores,  and  pay  to 
the  owners  a  specified  percentage  of  the 
receipts  from  the  marketing  of  the  ore. 
This  practice  has  frequently  been  the 
only  successful  way  of  operating  some 
mines.  It  has,  at  times,  been  the  manner 
of  operating  practically  every  mine  in 
certain  districts. 

In  districts  carrying  pockets  of  very 
rich  ore,  "high  grading"  has  been  dis- 
couraged in  this  way,  for  the  "leasers" 

195 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

(incorrect,  though  common,  word  for 
lessees)  do  their  own  mining  and  there  is 
much  less  object  in  stealing. 

In  other  instances  of  mines  which  have 
been  operated  by  the  owning  companies 
until  they  were  past  a  profitable  stage,  it 
has  been  proved  possible  to  prolong  the 
life  of  operations  very  materially  by  leas- 
ing the  property  to  miners,  who  always 
work  with  more  diligence  and  economy 
for  themselves  than  they  ever  do  when 
working  under  "  day's  pay."  This  feature 
of  leasing  has  been  quite  a  factor  in  the 
lives  of  some  of  the  mines  of  the  Cripple 
Creek  District.  Until  the  recent  drain- 
age of  the  district  through  the  Roosevelt 
Tunnel,  there  were  numerous  small — and 
even  some  large — properties  that  had 
worked  all  the  ore  bodies  previously  known 
to  exist  above  the  water  level  of  the  dis- 
trict, and  had  been  obliged  to  shut  down 
because  of  the  heavy  pumping  expenses. 
Company  operation  did  not  longer  pay. 
But  the  plain  "leaser"  and  his  partner 
could  go  into  such  old  workings  and  they 
could  prospect  and  find  ore  bodies  that 
had  escaped  the  observation  of  the  sup- 

196 


INVESTMENT  IN  MINING  STOCKS 

erintendents.  The  expenses  incurred  in 
leasing  are  low.  It  is  true  that  lessees 
will  not  probably  take  as  good  care  of 
mine  workings  and  equipment  as  will 
"company  men,"  and  often  a  property 
may  be  seriously  crippled  through  the  lack 
of  sufficient  timbering  after  having  been 
in  the  hands  of  a  set  of  lessees  for  some 
time.  But,  on  the  whole,  there  has  prob- 
ably been  more  benefit  than  loss  through 
the  letting  of  leases. 

When,  a  few  years  ago,  the  plans  of 
the  National  Forestry  Service  were  put 
into  effect,  there  was  great  complaint 
recorded  concerning  the  rulings  that 
were  made  against  various  miners.  Some 
very  well  authenticated  cases  of  wrongs 
were  cited.  However,  it  is  now  believed 
by  all  fair-minded  men  that  there  has 
been  no  intention,  on  the  part  of  the 
officials  of  the  Forest  Service,  to  interfere 
with  any  legitimate  mining  enterprise. 
There  was  a  well-founded  object,  viz.,  to 
put  a  stop  to  dishonest  practices  in  obtain- 
ing title  to  timber  lands  by  the  misrep- 
resentation of  mineral  finds. 

The  General  Land  Office  passed  a  rule 

197 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

authorizing  Foresters  and  Assistant  For- 
esters to  make  inspections  of  all  mining 
claims  within  their  reserves  and  to  report 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  The 
idea  embodied  in  this  rule  was  that  these 
men,  being  agents  of  the  Government  and 
upon  the  ground,  are  able  to  investigate 
the  facts  concerning  every  mining  claim 
and  its  claimant  and  so  to  run  across  any 
evidences  of  fraud  that  might  be  at- 
tempted in  the  securing  of  title.  Trouble 
immediately  arose  because  the  Foresters 
were  not  all  experienced  miners  and  pros- 
pectors and  so  were  not  thoroughly  quali- 
fied to  pass  judgment  upon  the  merits  of 
mineral  lands.  This  weakness  has  been 
admitted  by  the  officers  of  the  Service 
but  the  excuse  has  been  offered  that  there 
was  an  immediate  need  for  a  great  many 
Foresters  and  it  was  not  possible  to  secure 
men  trained  in  both  forestry  and  mining 
at  such  short  notice.  "Just  as  soon  as 
conditions  became  better  understood,  and 
money  was  available  to  allow  the  Service 
to  hire  men  whose  judgment  in  mining 
matters  could  not  be  gainsaid,  such  men 
were  employed,"  says  Paul  G.  Reddington, 

198 


INVESTMENT  IN  MINING  STOCKS 

recently  Forester  for  the  Rocky  Mountain 
Regions.  It  is  true  that  much  fraud  has 
been  prevented  in  the  practice  of  taking 
up  Government  lands  and  it  is  also  quite 
true  that  the  Forest  Service  is  endeavor- 
ing to  uplift  the  mining  industry  in  the 
western  portions  of  the  United  States. 

Mining  is  bound  to  become  a  still 
stronger  factor  in  civilization  as  metal- 
lurgical processes  multiply  and  there  are 
discovered  means  of  more  economically 
extracting  the  valuable  contents  of  ores. 
Minerals  which  are  not  now  ores — ac- 
cording to  the  accepted,  scientific  defini- 
tion, because  the  values  cannot  be  re- 
covered at  a  profit — will,  at  some  future 
period,  become  ores.  It  is  not  safe  to 
make  any  close  predictions  along  this 
line,  for  such  marked  reductions  in  treat- 
ment costs  have  been  going  on  during 
the  last  few  years  that  mining  men  are 
entertaining  great  expectations.  Inven- 
tions for  improvement  in  metallurgical 
lines  are  being  placed  upon  the  market 
so  frequently  that  it  is  difficult  for  even 
the  professional  metallurgist  to  keep 
posted.  This  being  true,  it  is  clear  that 

199 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

the  layman  cannot  expect  to  keep  abreast 
of  the  metallurgical  advance.  At  the 
same  time,  it  is  well  for  everybody  to  be 
slightly  conversant  with  the  wonderful 
advances  being  made  in  the  reduction 
and  dressing  of  ores.  Conspicuous  in 
this  field  are  the  improvements  that  have 
been  effected  in  cyanidation,  electrolytic 
amalgamation  and  extraction,  and  flota- 
tion. These  processes  are  applicable  to 
the  lower  grades  of  ore.  Among  the  very 
recent  successes  in  the  treatment  of  very 
low-grade  gold  ores  are  the  operations 
conducted  in  the  new  mills  of  the  Port- 
land Gold  Mining  Company,  Stratton's 
Independence,  and  the  Ajax  Gold  Min- 
ing Company,  all  in  the  Cripple  Creek 
District.  All  of  these  mills  are  now  treat- 
ing old  mine  dumps,  the  contents  of  which 
were  considered  as  absolutely  waste  mat- 
ter at  the  time  it  was  excavated.  This 
stuff  is  now  ore  and  its  treatment  is  mak- 
ing fine  profits.  There  is  still  a  demand 
for  cheaper  methods  of  reducing  ores  of 
zinc.  There  are  vast  quantities  of  stuff 
that  contains  very  good  percentages  of 
zinc,  but  the  material  cannot  be  mined 

200 


INVESTMENT  IN  MINING  STOCKS 

and  treated  at  a  profit  under  existing 
conditions.  With  the  invention  of  some- 
thing radically  new  in  the  metallurgy  of 
this  metal,  there  will  be  opened  an  en- 
tirely different  aspect  in  the  zinc-mining 
regions.  The  Leadville  District  possesses 
great  reserves  of  this  material  that  is 
being  held  until  it  may  become  "ore." 


XXII 

THE  MEN  OF  THE  FUTURE 
IN  MINING. 

The  mining  of  the  future  will  probably 
be  largely  in  the  hands  of  young  men. 
To  arrive  at  any  conclusions  concerning 
the  probabilities  of  success,  therefore,  we 
are  obliged  to  recognize  the  dual  con- 
ditions. In  other  words,  there  is  to  be 
an  interdependence  between  men  and 
mining.  Up  to  this  point  in  our  discus- 
sion, we  have  dwelt  upon  the  probabilities 
as  viewed  from  the  standpoints  of  natural 
resources  and  of  human  capability.  In  a 
certain  degree,  we  have  already  covered 
the  ground  of  this  present  chapter;  and 
yet  there  are  some  points  that  must  be 
given  special  consideration. 

What  is  the  true  status  of  metal  min- 
ing? Alarmists  would  have  us  believe 
that  civilization  is  rapidly  exhausting  the 
world's  reserves  of  available  metals.  Con- 
servative investigation,  however,  repudi- 
ates such  notions.  The  best  that  can  be 

202 


MEN  OF  THE  FUTURE  IN  MINING 

claimed  for  the  reliability  of  such  discon- 
certing statements  is  that  they  may  apply 
in  some  districts,  to  some  grades  of  some 
kinds  of  desirable  mineral  matter. 

It  may  be  true  that  the  early  miners 
have  removed  the  "cream"  from  Nature's 
deposits  in  some  districts,  in  the  sense  that 
they  have  skimmed  off,  as  it  were,  the  rich 
surface  portions.  But  this  does  not  sig- 
nify the  exhaustion  of  deeper  ore  bodies, 
nor  does  it  mean  that  the  pioneers  were 
the  only  capable  prospectors. 

Why  should  we  have  any  reason  to 
deny  the  ability  of  present  or  future 
generations  to  find  just  as  good  mineral 
deposits  as  did  our  predecessors?  Persons 
in  some  of  the  older  of  the  western  mining 
states — as  for  instance,  Colorado  or  Cali- 
fornia— are  apt  to  carry  a  misconception 
along  this  line.  They  can  see  a  number 
of  idle  "camps"  that  are  mere  relics  of 
former  thriving  mining  communities  and 
they  are  liable  to  jump  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  day  of  mining  at  such  places  is 
past,  forever.  However,  as  we  look  at 
the  subject  in  a  more  rational  light,  we 
shall  see  that  there  is  no  more  authority 

203 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  MINING 

for  such  an  assumption  than  there  is  for 
one  to  the  effect  that  a  farm  in  the  winter- 
time is  a  worthless  proposition  simply 
because,  temporarily,  it  is  not  producing 
its  customary  summer  yield.  Just  as 
Nature  brings  about  changing  conditions 
for  the  farmer,  so  will  economic  forces 
establish  varying  degrees  of  attractive- 
ness to  the  miner. 

It  is  unfair  to  judge  one  of  the  pioneer 
mining  districts  by  its  activity  at  the 
present  time,  if  the  productiveness  hap- 
pens to  be  small.  Let  us  look  for  the 
reasons  of  the  apparent  decline.  The 
chances  are  that  the  inactivity  will  be 
shown  to  be  due,  not  to  an  exhaustion  of 
ore  bodies,  but  to  some  needed  changes  in 
mining  or  metallurgical  methods.  Very 
likely,  under  a  readjustment  of  our  no- 
tions about  that  particular  district  there 
will  appear  to  be  as  great  latent  possibil- 
ities as  ever  cheered  the  earlier  operators. 
The  prospects  may  appear  to  be  even 
better  than  this,  and  the  future  may 
appear  to  extend  greater  opportunities 
than  were  ever  manifested  in  the  past. 
Investigation  may  disclose  great  bodies 

204 


MEN  OF  THE  FUTURE  IN  MINING 

of  ore  that  could  not  be  seriously  consid- 
ered in  the  earlier  working  of  the  region. 
In  fact,  speaking  technically,  the  stuff  in 
question  was  not  ore  at  the  time  of  pre- 
vious operations,  for  it  could  not  then  be 
made  to  yield  a  profit.  And  yet,  by 
introducing  some  changes  in  equipment 
or  methods  of  working  or  treatment, 
there  may  be  possibilities  of  making  a 
great  deal  of  money  from  an  abandoned 
property;  and  the  chances  are  good  that 
this  same  profit  may  be  won  at  a  much 
more  rapid  rate  than  was  ever  before 
possible  and  that  therefore  the  economic 
conditions  are  enhanced.  For  we  must 
not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  greatest 
profits  in  mining  usually  accrue  from  the 
most  rapid  exhaustion  of  the  ore  bodies. 
A  mine,  or  even  a  whole  district,  may 
have  been  deserted  because  of  failure  on 
the  part  of  original  miners  to  recognize 
the  value  of  certain  minerals.  The  re- 
cent revival  of  activity  that  has  been 
noted  in  Leadville  mining  circles  is  but 
an  instance  in  point.  In  this  district, 
miners  have  given  a  delayed  recognition 
to  some  important  minerals  of  zinc,  and 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

the  indications  are  that  Leadville  has 
entered  upon  another  of  its  eras  of  min- 
ing activity. 

But,  it  is  not  necessary  to  restrict  our 
thoughts  to  the  old  mining  regions,  for 
if  we  can  observe  how  easy  it  has  been  to 
overlook  valuable  deposits  in  a  country 
that  has  been  subjected  to  severe  mining 
work,  for  years  and  years,  what  must  we 
conclude  concerning  the  possibilities  of 
the  many  and  vast  undeveloped  areas  in 
remote  portions  of  the  globe?  It  would 
seem  that  there  is  indeed  very  small  cause 
for  alarm  about  the  exhaustion  of  the 
earth's  metals. 

No,  it  can  be  shown  that  mining,  which 
is  one  of  the  very  fundamental  industries 
of  the  world  and  the  one  upon  which  every 
other  form  of  commercialism  rests,  will  be 
carried  on  with  a  continual  increase  in 
magnitude  just  as  long  as  man  exists.  As 
the  richer  and  more  easily  mined  ore  re- 
serves of  Nature  are  exhausted,  improved 
and  cheaper  methods  of  mining,  trans- 
portation, and  treatment  will  be  intro- 
duced and  at  a  pace  that  will  equalize 
this  exhaustion.  We,  of  the  present  gen- 

206 


MEN  OF  THE  FUTURE  IN  MINING 

eration,  see  the  eminently  successful 
handling  of  copper  ores  of  grades  so  low 
that  they  were  not  given  passing  con- 
sideration ten  years  ago.  The  outlook 
would  appear  to  be  that  the  improve- 
ments in  methods  and  costs  will  not  only 
keep  abreast  of  needs  in  such  matters,  but 
the  probabilities  are  that  they  will  take  a 
very  marked  lead,  with  the  result  of  a  con- 
tinually increasing  scope  to  the  mining  in- 
dustry. Let  us  then  entertain  optimistic 
views  about  the  future  of  mining. 

Now,  as  to  the  future  of  the  young 
man  who  engages  in  mining  there  is  just 
as  much  to  be  said  as  there  is  concerning 
the  career  of  a  young  man  in  any  other 
line  of  business.  This  word  "business"  is 
used  advisedly,  for  the  day  is  past  when 
any  person  has  a  right  to  say  that  mining 
is  anything  but  strictly  legitimate  bus- 
iness. 

We  look  to  the  young  men  of  the  pres- 
ent and  future  to  correct  all  of  the  short- 
comings that  have  hindered  the  establish- 
ment of  mining  upon  its  deserved  plane 
of  stability  in  the  minds  of  the  general 
public.  Young  blood  will  take  a  lead  in 

207 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

the  dissemination  of  the  correct  thoughts 
a  bout  mining. 

The  successful  man  in  mining  will  be, 
as  heretofore,  the  one  with  the  right  qual- 
ifications in  his  make-up.  Is  a  college 
education  an  essential  prerequisite  to 
success  in  mining?  No,  the  writer  is  not 
one  to  declare  that  young  men  cannot 
succeed  in  the  business  without  college 
training.  However,  there  can  be  no 
avoidance  of  the  proposition  that  the 
chances  of  the  college-trained  man  are 
better  than  are  those  of  the  man  who 
has  not  had  the  benefits  of  such  a  career. 

A  man  may  be  said  to  engage  in  min- 
ing in  three  different  ways.  Thus,  he 
may  operate  mining  property;  or  he  may 
perform  any  of  the  manifold  lines  of 
mining  engineering;  or  he  may  be  an 
investor  in  mining  property  or  mining 
stocks. 

To  prove  a  success  when  enrolled  in 
either  of  the  first  two  classes,  there  is  no 
denying  the  advantages  of  technical, 
mining  education.  The  successful  inves- 
tor likewise  will  do  well  to  make  a  consis- 
tent study  of  mining  economics,  and  the 

208 


MEN  OF  THE  FUTURE  IN  MINING 


more  attention  he  gives  to  the  many 
phases  of  approved  modern  mining,  the 
greater  will  be  his  ultimate  achievement, 
financially.  Just  as  education  along  usual 
school  branches  is  of  immeasurable  bene- 
fit to  any  man  of  business,  so  is  it  to 
the  mining  man.  And  in  just  as  great 
ratio  is  the  possession  of  innate  business 
ability. 

Education  and  natural  ability  are  the 
two  elements  that  will  count  in  the  future 
of  any  young  man  in  mining. 

Space  might  be  devoted  to  the  discus- 
sion of  the  possibilities  of  young  men  in 
the  field  of  research  work  along  scientific 
lines  that  would  add  materially  to  the 
economy  and  scope  of  mining.  Such  a 
career  offers  inducements  looking  to  the 
achievement  of  honor  as  well  as  fortune. 
The  field  for  such  service  is  ready. 


XXIII 

MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERA- 
TIONS. 

There  are  regions  producing  ores  that 
are  too  refractory  for  the  simple  treat- 
ments that  might  be  given  by  company 
plants  located  at  the  mines.  There  are 
districts  that  have  many  small  gold  and 
silver  mines  with  ores  that  do  not  yield 
to  simple  milling  processes  and  which 
must  therefore  be  shipped  to  custom 
smelteries.  Even  were  the  ores  amenable 
to  milling  of  some  sort,  it  is  often  the 
case  that  the  mines  are  not  of  sufficient 
magnitude  to  warrant  the  maintenance 
of  their  own  treatment  plants. 

Under  proper  trade  and  commercial 
conditions,  there  is  no  impropriety  in 
shipping  ore  to  a  custom  plant  or  in  sell- 
ing it  outright  to  a  company  owning 
such  a  plant.  But,  contemporaneously 
with  much  of  the  mining  in  the  West, 
there  has  been  such  a  monopoly  on  ore 
treatment  that  great  injustice  has  been 
210 


MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS 

wrought  to  the  shippers  of  small  lots  of 
ore.  Not  only  has  this  accusation  been 
true  of  smelting  concerns  but  also  of 
milling  companies.  Once  in  a  while  rep- 
resentatives of  such  corporations  will 
arise  and  attempt  to  refute  these  state- 
ments, but  the  evidence  is  overwhelm- 
ingly against  them,  and  their  argu- 
ments of  being  benefactors  of  the  miner 
fall  flat. 

By  consolidation  of  companies  and 
the  elimination  of  competition,  arrogant 
methods  and  unreasonable  charges  have 
been  put  into  force;  and  the  managers  of 
mines  have  been  obliged  to  accept  what- 
ever rates  the  monopolists  saw  fit  to 
charge  for  treatment  and  whatever  arbi- 
trary prices  they  cared  to  pay  for  the 
metallic  contents  of  the  shipped  ores. 
Very  gross  extortion  has  been  practised 
and  even  yet  there  are  many  mining 
camps  which  are  so  absolutely  under  the 
control  of  these  concerns  that  properties 
which  should  pay  well,  under  just  and 
favorable  conditions,  are  forced  to  remain 
idle.  These  conditions  could  not  be  ex- 
pected to  prevail  forever,  and  the  time 
211 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

is  now  at  hand  when  the  extortionate 
smelting  and  milling  trusts  are  meeting 
with  pronounced  opposition  and  a  greatly 
diminished  business.  The  state  of  Utah 
has  demonstrated  the  ability  of  ore  pro- 
ducers to  bring  the  oppressors  to  time  and 
the  mine  owners  of  that  state  are  in  a 
much  more  favored  position  right  now 
than  are  the  miners  of  Colorado,  for  in- 
stance, who  really  have  been  the  greater 
sufferers.  The  Utah  mining  men  have 
benefited  by  the  sad  experiences  of  the 
miners  of  the  sister  state.  In  Colorado, 
the  American  Smelting  and  Refining  Co. 
has  been  a  domineering  factor  in  the  min- 
ing industry  for  years,  and  the  decrease  of 
mining  in  Colorado  has  been  contempo- 
raneous with  the  oppression  of  this  great 
corporation.  The  real  cheating  that  has 
been  practised  by  the  ore-buying  and 
ore-treating  companies  is  well  understood 
by  all  mining  men  who  have  been  within 
their  clutches. 

It  seems  to  be  a  fact  that  every  tyrant 
eventually  proves  his  own  undoing.  In 
the  case  of  the  oppressive  smelter  trust, 
the  greed  resulted  in  an  immense  income 

212 


MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS 

for  the  time  being;  but  as  mines  were 
obliged  to  close  down  because  of  the  un- 
just charges  imposed  for  handling  the 
ores,  the  quantities  of  ore  handled  con- 
tinued to  diminish.  During  the  past  few 
years  when  mining  has  been  so  unusually 
dull  in  many  of  the  western  mining 
camps,  it  has  been  very  difficult  for  the 
smelting  company  to  secure  enough  ore 
to  keep  running,  and  the  present  outlook 
is  not  encouraging.  Statistics  will  show 
that  the  production  of  the  metals  is  not 
really  so  low  as  the  decrease  in  tonnages 
would  seem  to  indicate,  and  the  discrep- 
ancy is  accounted  for  in  the  fact  that  very 
many  mining  companies  have  installed 
their  own  plants  for  either  actually  re- 
covering their  metals  or  for  reducing  their 
bulk  of  ores  by  concentration  before  ship- 
ping to  the  custom  treatment  plants. 
Thus  the  smelting  company  may  still  be 
turning  out  a  large  amount  of  metallic 
lead,  for  example,  but  it  is  smelted  from 
concentrates  instead  of  from  crude  ore 
and  the  tonnage,  the  principal  basis  for 
estimating  smelting  charges,  is  very  much 
less  than  was  formerly  handled  in  obtain- 

213 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 

ing  the  same  amount  of  the  same  sort  of 
product.  The  investigations  started  by 
the  oppressed  ones  in  their  efforts  to  evade 
the  oppressor  have  led  to  wonderful 
results,  and  it  is  no  longer  necessary  for 
the  miner  to  depend  upon  the  smelter. 

Some  similar  sharp  practice  against 
the  mining  fraternity  was  attempted  and 
for  a  short  time  successfully  carried  on  by 
what  was  termed,  in  Colorado,  the  milling 
trust.  This  concern  handled  the  ores 
from  Cripple  Creek,  principally.  The 
larger  mining  companies  soon  began  the 
erection  of  their  individual  plants  and 
the  practice  has  been  extending  until  it  is 
now  common  for  Cripple  Creek  mines  to 
own  and  operate  their  own  reduction 
works,  much  on  the  order  of  the  practice 
in  the  Transvaal  country. 

As  a  final  word  in  this  discussion,  the 
author  wishes  to  reiterate  his  belief  in 
the  legitimacy  of  investment  in  mines  and 
mining  stocks.  When  mining  is  placed 
upon  sound  business  principles  and  every 
detail  of  the  work  is  carried  on  with  strict 
attention  to  sound  economy,  there  can  be 
few  failures.  This  means  that  business 

214 


MISCELLANEOUS  CONSIDERATIONS 

judgment  and  expert  advice  must  be  used 
from  the  very  start — in  other  words,  that 
no  false  starts  must  be  permitted.  Then, 
after  getting  under  way  in  a  worthy  en- 
terprise, the  successful  mine  operator 
will  exercise  just  as  close  scrutiny  of 
every  operation,  method,  and  employee 
as  do  the  men  who  conduct  other  success- 
ful lines  of  business. 

This  little  work  has  been  prepared 
primarily  for  the  perusal  of  men  and 
women  who  are  not  personally  acquainted 
with  details  of  mining,  but  who  entertain 
notions  of  becoming  financially  interested. 
It  is  hoped  that  the  simple  descriptions 
of  some  of  the  elementary  details  will 
prove  of  use  to  a  great  many  persons. 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  MINING 


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INDEX 


Accidents,  104 

Adit,  advantages  of,  97,  100, 

101,  104 

Adit,  defined,  95 
Ajax  mine,  200 
Alaska,  8,  44,  67,  123 
Amortization,  151 
Anaconda  mine,  44,  119 
Arizona,  77 
Australia,  26,  125 

Bancroft,  Geo.,  160 
Bankets,  116 
Bassick  mine,  112 
Batea,  64 

Bingham  Canon  Dist.,  73 
Black  Hills,  33,  74 
Blanket  vein,  111 
Brazil  placers,  8,  67 
Buried  placers,  61 
Butte  District,  44,  183 

Cages,  102 

California  mining,  26,  31,  42, 

61,  67 

Camp  Bird  mine,  33,  121 
Canadian  mining  claims,  54,55 
Capitalization,  140,  216 
Charleton,  A.  G.,  16 
Chimneys,  112 
Churn  drilling,  65 
Climatic  influences,  83 


Coal  mining,  20,  23 

Coal  washing,  17 

Colorado  Fuel  &  Iron  Co.,183 

Colorado  lode  claims,  52 

Comstock  lode,  43,  91,  99 

Concentration,  13,  156 

Consulting  engineer,  165 

Copper  mining,  24,  43,  73 

Copper,  price  of,  175 

Cornwall,  25,  122 

Cost  of  patenting  claims,  58 

Cradle,  64 

Cripple  Creek  District,   91, 

109,    112,    125,    193,    196, 

200,  214 
Crosscuts,  96 
Custom  treatment,  210 

Dead  work,  79 

Dikes,  108 

Directors'  functions,  163 

Dividends  of  N.  Amer.  mines, 

216 
Dry  placers,  71 

Egypt,  22 
Ely  District,  74 
Esperanza  mine,  125 
Examination  of  mines,  130, 

191 

Exploitation,  79,  166 
Extralateral  rights,  53 


221 


INDEX 


Failures  in  mining,  190 

Gash  veins,  111 

Gangue,  118 

Giants,  68 

Gold,  price  of,  170 

Gold  production,  30  to  38 

Golden  Fleece,  explained,  24 

Grab  samples,  167 

Greece,  mining  in,  25,  122 

High-grading,  126,  195 
Homestake  mine,  33,  123 
Hoover,  H.  C.,  162 
Hydraulicking,  68,  70 

Inclines,  95,  100 
Incorporation,  140 
Iron  ore  prices,  176 

Joplin  District,  13,  91 

Kansas  coal  mining,  5 
Kemp,  Jas.  F.,  18 
Kentucky  lead  mining,  8,  85 
Keweenaw  Peninsula,  116 
Kimberly  diamond  mines,  43, 
112,  127 

Labor  considerations,  84,  85 
Lead,  prices  of,  178 
Leadville,  44,  114,  150,  201, 

205 

Leasing,  195 
Leonard,  P.  A.,  186 
Life  of  a  mine,  92,  150 
Lode  defined,  51,  109,  110 
Long  torn,  65 
Low-grade  mining,  122,  200 


Machinery,  89,  154 

Management,  162 

Mass,  defined,  113 

Metallurgy,  14 

Mexico,  34,  43,  125 

Mexican  mining  claims,  55 

Milling,  14 

Mine  accounts,  179 

Mine,  definition  of,  4,  8,  20 

Mine  promotion,  134,  139, 
146,  186 

Mine  reports,  168 

Miner's  licenses  and  certifi- 
cates, 55 

Miner's  pan,  64 

Mine  sampling,  130,  167 

Mine  timbers,  88 

Mining,  defined,  20,  80 

Mining  engineer's  functions, 
164,  191 

Mining  plants,  105,  154,  155, 
157,  160 

Minnesota  iron  ranges,  6,  42, 
72,  127 

Monitors,  68 

Mount  Morgan  mine,  6,  73 

Nevada  Cons.  Copper  Co.,  6, 

74 

New  Zealand,  61 
Nickel  mining,  34,  43 
Nickel,  price  of,  174 

Ore  defined,  18,  19 
Ore  deposition,  117 
Ore  dressing,  14,  16 


222 


INDEX 


Ore  in  sight,  131 
Ore  reserves,  131 
Oroya-Brownhill  mine,  125 
Open  pit  mining,  72 
Ophir,  location,  24 

Pertinencia,  56 
Placer  dredging,  66,  153 
Placer  denned,  60 
Placering,  14 
Platinum  mining,  33 
Platinum,  price  of,  172 
Political  considerations,  87 
Porphyry  mines,  76 
Portland  mine,  182,  200 
Prospecting,  39 
Prospects,  148 
Prospect  drilling,  65 
Prospectuses,  186,  188 

Quicksilver  mining,  43 
Quicksilver,  price  of,  178 

Reddington  mine,  43 
Reddington,  P.  G.,  198 
Reefs,  116 
Richard,  R.  H.,  15 
Rickard,  T.  A.,  127 
Riffles,  68 
Robinson  mine,  128 
Rocker,  64 
Roosevelt  tunnel,  196 

San  Juan  Region,  33,  99,  153 
Secondary  enrichment,  119 
Secrecy  in  operations,  183 
Shafts,  94,  98,  100 


Silver,  price  of,  172 

Silver  production,  36 

Skips,  102 

Slope,  defined,  95 

Sluices,  68,  69 

Sorting,  14 

South  Africa,  24,  33,  35,  128, 

149 

Spain,  122 
Spurr,  J.  E.,  120 
Steam  shovelling,  7,  72 
Stock,  defined,  112 
Stratton's   Independence 

mine,  194,  200 
Stripping,  75 
Sudbury  district,  43 
Supplies,  mine,  87,  88 
Surveyor-General  offices,  58 
Sutro  tunnel,  99 

Tin,  price  of,  173 
Title  to  property,  81 
Tonopah  district,  13,  150 
Topographical  considerations, 

82,99 
Transportation  consider- 

ations,  82,  194 
Transvaal,  13,  91 
Treadwell  mine,  44,  123 
Treasury  stock,  144 
Treatment   monopolies,  210, 

214 

Tungsten,  price  of,  174 
Tunnel,  defined,  94 

Unionism,  85 

United  Verde  mine,  182 


INDEX 


U.  S.  Bureau  of  Mines,  28 
U.  S.  coal  claims,  47,  48 
U.  S.  Forestry  service,  197 
U.  S.  lode  claims,  46,  51 
U.  S.  mineral  output,  32  to  37 
U.  S.  mineral  surveyors,  56, 

58 

U.  S.  placer  claims,  49 
U.  S.  Postal  Dept.,  138,  189 
Utah  Copper  Co.,  6,  73 


Van  Hise,  C.  R.,  115 
Vein,  defined,  107 

Wallace,  J.  P.,  150 
Wallaroo  mine,  43 
Wasp  No.  2  mine,  74 
Wildcatting,  137,  193 
Williams,  Percy,  191 

Zinc,  price  of.  177 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OP  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  5O  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


FEB  1  2  1992 


DLC  1  0  i991 


LD  21-100m-7,'40  (6936s) 


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• 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


YB     15513 


